A PROFESSIONAL cricketer who stabbed a mother of three to death in front of her four-month-old baby son was jailed for life this week.

Bevon Ricardo Williams attacked Melanie Horridge in a Chorley alley after she threatened to expose their secret affair.

A court was told that Tobagan-born Williams feared the consequences of their relationship being revealed.

The couple had a casual relationship in 2001 and Melanie was pregnant with his child when it ended. He later learned that she had given birth.

The pair were said to have resumed contact, as the defendant had access to the two-year-old child.

Melanie was knifed on February 27 this year in an alley off Stump Lane, but the murder weapon has never been found.

At the time of the attack, Melanie, of Talbot Cottage, Talbot Road, was pushing her son in a pram; Williams had his own daughter in a pram.

Melanie, 25, bled to death after suffering multiple stab wounds.

Williams, 27, of Fielden Street, Chorley, pleaded guilty to murder.

A judge at Preston Crown Court on Monday ordered that Williams serve more than 11 years before he be considered for parole.

David Pickup, prosecuting, told how three teenage boys were alerted that Friday evening by a baby crying. They found the baby and Melanie lying on the ground nearby in a pool of blood.

A neighbour tried to give first aid, but Melanie had lost a great deal of blood. She had suffered 24 cut wounds, eight to the head and neck. The most significant injury was through the front of the neck.

Williams, who came to this country several years ago, walked into a police station next day.

He claimed they had begun fighting and that Melanie had jumped on him. He said they fell over and he found something which he used to stab her.

Defence barrister Mr Keith Thomas said the tragedy had destroyed and devastated several lives. Williams was full of genuine remorse.

After learning he was the father of one of Melanie's children he saw the child from about December last year. They had sex on two occasions in February.

"It was as a result of his relationship sexually that all this came about. The consequences were tragic in the extreme.

"He was desperate his relationship with his partner Kirsty was not damaged."

On the fateful day he and Melanie met up in Astley Park. She threatened to go to Kirsty's place of work and tell her what had happened. He arranged to meet her again to sort things out and they saw each other in the alleyway.

Mr Thomas added "Melanie was very firm with her intention. She made it clear to him what she was going to do.

"A scuffle ensued. The defendant went to the ground. His recollection thereafter is not the best. He is unable to explain his loss of control and what happened next."

The judge, Mr Justice Leveson, told Williams, who had played for Euxton Cricket Club in the past: "The problems you were confronting on this terrible day were entirely of your own making. You have nobody to blame, but yourself."

He did not accept that Williams had picked up the knife by chance.

"In the heat of the moment you decided to use it with terrible consequences. You snuffed out the life of another human being, depriving her children of their mother and your family of their own support.

"Your own life, which had previously been one of promise, has become an utter disaster."