There was uproar in a Belfast court today as a man who killed his fiancee at Christmas two years ago was convicted of her murder.
Andrew Robinson who stabbed his girlfriend Julie Ann Osbourne 41 times, buried his head in his hands and wept as the Crown Court jury unanimously convicted him of the brutal killing.
Relatives of the dead girl clapped and cheered the verdict with a deafening roar, even drowning out trial judge Lord Justice Nicholson's calls for order.
The jury of six women and five men, who took two days of deliberation, had heard that 24-year-old Robinson stabbed 22-year-old Julie Ann after she broke off their engagement and threatened to bar him from ever seeing their baby daughter again.
He then "stage managed" the discovery of her blood-soaked body on December 27th two years ago in the bedroom of the Shankill Terrace home they shared in west Belfast.
Robinson who'd gone to the house with Julie Ann's step-father Mr Dessie Shearer, vowed to kill "the bastards - and their family" for murdering his fiancee.
But the court heard that two days earlier, following a Christmas party, Robinson "violently assaulted" Julie Ann, leaving her with a black eye and a cut forehead.
A neighbour who'd gone to Julie Ann's aid, alerted by her screams, was confronted by a knife wielding Robinson who also threatened to "harm himself".
The following morning, in front of her mother Mrs Linda Shearer, Julie Ann took off her engagement ring and gave it to Robinson, telling him their relationship was over and that "he would not see their child again".
Mrs Shearer, who took her baby granddaughter home with her after Robinson agreed to leave to stay with his own mother, never saw Julie Ann alive again after that St Stephen's Day morning.
Robinson later claimed he last saw Julie Ann alive and well the following day and even "kissed her goodbye" when he'd gone to the house to collect his benefits book.
But the North's State Pathologist Professor Jack Craine rubbished Robinson's claim, estimating that Julie Ann was brutally murdered either late on St Stephen's Day, or in the early hours of December 27th.
Professor Craine said that in the horrific knife attack Julie Ann was stabbed 13 times in the chest and a further 28 times in the back.
Many of the wounds had "completely penetrated" her body, mutilating her internal organs, and that those to her head went straight through her skull into her brain, while her throat was slashed back to her spine.
Professor Craine also revealed that while some where "superficial cuts" like "defence wounds" to the her hands and arms, one had almost severed one of her wrist joints.
Robinson remanded in custody, who faces a life sentence, will be told later at a separate hearing, how much of the mandatory term he must serve before he can be considered for release.