Woman who stabbed ‘controlling’ boyfriend to death in bed is jailed for 7 years

A woman who stabbed her “domineering and controlling” boyfriend to death while he slept in bed has been jailed for seven years.

Alex Glanfield-Collis, 27, plunged a 7in hunting knife into John Maclean’s neck shortly after he had waved it at her in the bedroom of their London Docklands flat on 12 April last year.

She then left the 35-year-old to bleed to death and wandered out onto the communal balcony, lit up a cannabis joint and cracked open a beer.

Glanfield-Collis was cleared of murder following a retrial after a previous jury could not agree verdicts and convicted of manslaughter by loss of control.

She was part of a man-hating WhatsApp group of women called ‘The Ct Club’ who posted insulting and abusive comments about their boyfriends, the court heard.

Glanfield-Collins had complained that Maclean was “domineering and controlling”.

The Old Bailey heard how she met Maclean at around 18 and fell pregnant after three miscarriages within the space of just nine months.

Judge Richard Marks QC said Maclean was “an extremely difficult individual” who “never worked and evidently had an inflated sense of his own importance”.

Jurors were played a series of WhatsApp voice messages of Maclean screaming vile abuse at Glanfield-Collis over minor things like not answering her phone.

The judge described them as “chilling to listen to” and said their tone was “as foul as it was abusive”.

Glanfield-Collis, “an intelligent and articulate” woman, had been forced to give up a good job when her employers moved offices and the commute became too long.

As a result, her and Maclean were under the same roof all day, leaving her “even more at his beck and call” than she had been already.

The pair also smoked “ridiculously large amounts of cannabis”, the court heard.

A few weeks before the killing Maclean proposed they have a threesome and insisted Glanfield-Collis, of Isle of Dogs in east London, call him a different name during sex.

He also began to “exert pressure” on her neck and suggested she become involved in prostitution.

The court heard Maclean dictated what should go on her online escorting profile and accompanied her when two such “encounters” took place.

Such was her “anger and resentment” at his “controlling and coercive behaviour”, Judge Marks said he had no doubt Glanfield-Collis intended to kill him when she plunged the 19.5cm (7.6in) knife into his neck as he slept following another row.

But “while John Maclean was undoubtedly demanding, self-centred, domineering and controlling”, he said he was satisfied there had been “an element of exaggeration” in her account of his behaviour towards her and how he made her feel.

In a victim impact statement, Mr Maclean’s mother Allison Whitton said he “was not perfect but did not deserve to be killed”.

She said hers and her family’s “hearts were broken and ripped apart” by the killing.

“My child had been slaughtered while he slept with no chance of defending himself,” Ms Whitton said.

Jurors heard the couple had “a turbulent relationship with highs and lows”, and Maclean would leave “horrible, rude and aggressive voice messages” for Glanfield-Collis.

Jurors heard Glanfield-Collis was part of a WhatsApp group called ‘The Ct Club’.

Prosecutor Lisa Wilding QC said: “It was an all-women group who shared anecdotes, thoughts and jokes – mostly about men.”

In one message the women joked about one member of the group once tying her husband to a chair and Glanfield-Collis jested about whether it was to kill him or have sex with him.

Glanfield-Collis added: “Well you never know with the cs we have chosen to have kids with.”

Ms Wilding said: “I do not suggest for one minute that she drew inspiration from that jokey messaging that she must kill her partner.

“But again, it shows the complete disdain and disregard that she had for John Maclean and how little she thought of him.”

She added: “For example, a few months before the murder on 8 December last year, she told John he needs to sort himself out because he’s getting more and more of an assehole and he should f off to his house because he’s a bully and should stop calling her just to talk s***.

“She gave as good as she got.”Glanfield-Collis told jurors Mr Maclean woke her up at 7am and asked her where the joint he had been smoking the night before was.

They got into an argument and he waved a knife in front of her face saying she was lucky he had not used it before, she said.

She told jurors that after they had a child together Mr Maclean demanded sex every day and would wake her up late at night.