British man stabbed ex girlfriend 50 times after she dumped him in 'brutal and barbaric murder'

Alan Daulby was jailed today for 19 years for killing Avril Flanagan in 2009



He stabbed her in the head, neck, chest, arms and legs before hiding her body in plastic sheeting, under his sofa and cleaning up the blood

Judges called it a 'brutal and barbaric' attack and an 'evil crime'



Mr Daulby and Miss Flanagan had been dating for 18 months before she ended the relationship

He stalked her for a week before killing her at his apartment in Costa Blanca, Spain



A jilted British man was jailed for 19 years today for stabbing his ex girlfriend nearly 50 times after she dumped him.

Judges called Alan Daulby's attack on the blonde bar worker ‘brutal and barbaric’ as they sentenced him to just one year short of the maximum jail term that prosecutors were demanding.

A jury last month found the 27-year-old British expat guilty of the stabbing murder of Irish woman Avril Flanagan, 20, at his flat on Spain's Costa Blanca on May 29, 2009.

Jailed for 19 years: Alan Daulby (left) was found guilty of the stabbing murder of his ex girlfriend Avril Flanagan (right) in an attack judges called 'brutal and barbaric'

He was convicted of knifing her 47 times around the head, neck, chest, arms and legs before hiding her body in plastic sheeting under his sofa as part of a clinical clean-up of the murder scene and going on the run.

Mr Daulby, 27, from Liverpool, Merseyside confessed to killing Miss Flanagan at the end of his trial but claimed he had confused her with an intruder after bingeing on drink and drugs and panicked when he woke up to find her dead.

Police told the court in Elche near Alicante they had found 53 stab wounds on her body.

Forensic experts said Miss Flanagan, from Swords, Dublin, died only after she had been stabbed 47 times. Mr Daulby had subjected his former partner to seven minutes of agony.

Speaking for the first time after Mr Daulby was found guilty of her daughter's murder, Barbara Flanagan said: ‘He destroyed my life that day.

‘He took my only daughter, my baby.

‘I have an image stuck in my mind of Avril lying there dead and him showering and tidying up the apartment to try to cover up his awful crime.’

Caught on the run: Mr Daubly was arrested hours after he killed Miss Flanagan, hiding her in plastic sheeting under his sofa, cleaning up her blood and going on the run

Mr Daulby, a former car valeter, used a mop and bleach to wipe up Miss Flanagan’s blood after killing her with a kitchen knife, showered and changed clothes and tried to stuff her mutilated body into a suitcase before wrapping her in blankets and plastic sheeting.

Judge Gracia Serrano, one of the three judges sentencing after the jury verdict, said in an 18 page ruling released today: ‘The number of stab wounds Avril received was very high.

‘The majority of them weren't either fatal or necessary for Alan Daulby to fulfill his intention of killing Avril.

‘He did not therefore just commit an evil crime.

‘He also committed other equally intentioned wrongdoing by taking pleasure in causing Avril additional suffering.

‘We have no doubt that Daulby acted with the intention of killing a woman who up until a week earlier had been his girlfriend.

‘It's clear to us from the way in which he murdered Avril that his attack was premeditated and deliberately designed to end her life.’

Family torn apart: Avril Flanagan, centre, pictured with her brother Ger and his fiancee Emeline. Her mother Barbara said outside court today that Mr Daulby had 'destroyed my life that day (he murdered her)'

He is expected to be moved from maximum security Foncalent Prison in Alicante in the next few weeks.

Miss Flanagan’s father Gerry Flanagan, a former bus engineer said: ‘Nothing will bring Avril back so this sentence doesn't actually mean much to our daily lives.

‘But it is a relief to know my daughter's killer will be punished for his horrendous crime and it enables us to get some closure on a chapter of our lives we wish we had never had to deal with in the first place.’

Her seven minutes of agony only ended when Mr Daulby stabbed her for the 47th time about the head, neck, chest, arms and legs with a kitchen knife.

Her family found her body hidden in plastic under a sofa after he spent more than three hours cleaning up the murder scene before going on the run.

He was arrested hours later 124 miles away after a police chase.

He had been dating Miss Flanagan, who worked at her family's pub Smiling Jacks in the Costa Roig resort for about 18 months before she ended their relationship.

Her mother told Mr Daulby's three day trial how he stalked her after she broke up with him and she broke her phone SIM card to stop talking calls from him.

The jury of eight women and one man convicted him of her murder in a unanimous verdict reached in just under two hours.

They ruled by a majority verdict of seven to two he was conscious of what he was doing, rejecting his claims his mind was not befuddled by drink or drugs.

Miss Flanagan, who moved to Spain in 2006, was due to fly back to Ireland the day of her death with her mother Barbara Flanagan to celebrate a relative's 21st birthday.

Judges also ordered Mr Daulby, who turned 27 last month in jail following his murder conviction, to pay Miss Flanagan’s parents €40,000 each for the loss of their daughter.

The three years Mr Daulby spent in jail on remand before his trial will be taken off the time he will serve behind bars.

Jose Carlos Munoz, a private prosecutor who represented her family at the trial, said: ‘Daulby wanted to do a deal before his trial and confess to killing Avril in exchange for a 17 and a half year sentence.

‘Her family rejected it. We feel it's positive that he's ended up getting 18 months more by taking it to trial.