CAR dealer Karl Watson was jailed for life yesterday for the murder of
his mother's wealthy lover.
Judge Nina Lowry recommended that Watson, 29, serve a minimum of 20
years. What he did was ''deliberate, calculated cruelty and anyone
capable of such cruelty against a fellow human being may repeat it,''
she told the Old Bailey.
Watson, of Selsdon, Surrey, had denied murdering John Shippey, 47, and
falsely imprisoning him in December 1991 but was found guilty by the
jury on Monday.
Mr Shippey was kidnapped from the home he shared with Watson's mother,
Josephine, in Ightham, Kent, and taken to a lock-up unit in Croydon.
As he lay bound and gagged and unable to defend himself, Watson
slashed him with a knife and stabbed him repeatedly in the chest.
He kept his victim's body in a car boot for three days before setting
it on fire in a lane.
It was only after the murder that his victim's double life was
revealed. To colleagues at Doves, the Croydon Jaguar and Ford dealership
where he was the #40,000-a-year director of finance, Mr Shippey was a
trusted and well-liked man.
But for years he had secretly been embezzling money totalling nearly
#1m to fund a luxury lifestyle including a string of mistresses,
expensive cars and homes, and an offshore bank account. The company is
involved in a civil action to try to recover the missing money.
When auditors moved in to check Doves's books, Mr Shippey needed cash
to prevent his deception being uncovered.
He began liquidising his assets and both Watson and his mother feared
this would include the sale of the #250,000 house in Ightham.
Mr Nigel Sweeney, prosecuting, said of Mr Shippey: ''At the time of
his murder he was involved with four different women, he had interests
in three houses on the southern outskirts of London, he was the
registered owner of three expensive cars in this country, and the owner
of two properties, one substantial, in Spain. He owned a motor cruiser
moored in Spain and had considerable money including a deposit account
in a Jersey bank containing #180,000.''
The four women were Josephine, who he met in the 1970s, when she
worked as a secretary at Doves and their relationship endured despite
his marriage in 1980 to Sheila, another Dove employee.
The other women were Sue Hipperson, another Dove employee, and
Christine Milson the barmaid of his local public house.
Mr Shippey, a man with a ''charismatic personality'', always carried
one or two brief cases in which he kept records of his complex financial
dealings and up to #50,000 cash.
Before the murder his ''volatile'' relationship with Josephine began
to deteriorate and they
argued over trivial things.
It was after an evening out with Josephine and friends that Watson,
who had never liked his mother's lover, struck. Exactly what happened at
the house was never revealed in court, but it ended with Mr Shippey
being taken bound and gagged to the cold lock-up.
There, according to witness Bruce Cousins, it was so cold he went home
to get a heater to warm the captive. Cousins described how Watson raged
at his victim ''you should have paid her the money'' before going
''absolutely berserk'' and plunging the knife into his chest.
Cousins said he was too frightened to intervene and through fear of
Watson followed him three days later as he drove Mr Shippey's body into
the country and set it on fire.
Watson was arrested months later after Cousins confessed to his part.
Cousins, 25, of Croydon, has admitted helping to dispose of the body
and will be sentenced later.
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