Squatter stabbed pensioner to death when she returned to her own home from holiday

By Martin Fricker

Andrea Cutler, 39, attacked grandmother Sandra Bainbridge, 70, with two knives, stabbing her 70 times and then covering her with a duvet in the back yard

Killed: Sandra Bainbridge

 

 

A pensioner was stabbed to death by a squatter she found when she returned from holiday, a court heard.
Andrea Cutler, 39, attacked grandmother Sandra Bainbridge, 70, with two knives, stabbing her 70 times.
She put her body in the back yard under a duvet.
Cutler had broken into Mrs Bainbridge's home while she was on a winter break in Turkey.
She also threatened the retired civil servant's partner, Derek Joyner, with a knife when he came to check on Sandra the following day.
He told police he was chased into the street by single mum Cutler and described the chilling incident as "like a horror film without the music".
The day after killing Mrs Bainbridge, Cutler visited shops in Belper, withdrawing cash and buying goods, and went to see a former boyfriend in Derby who described her behaviour as 'normal'.
In a victim impact statement read to the court Mr Joyner said: "Sandra's death has totally changed my life, she was a loving partner who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

Murder scene: Home of 70 year-old Sandra Bainbridge

 

 "We should have been going on the holiday of a lifetime to Mexico. Instead I was attending her funeral.
"People think I have coped well with the trauma and the grief but the nights alone are lonely and I struggle to sleep."
Drug addict Cutler admitted diminished responsibility manslaughter over the killing in Belper, Derbys, in December 2013.
A judge at Nottingham crown court called her “very dangerous”. He sent her to a psychiatric unit indefinitely.