Man strangled girlfriend then told police she died after her drink was spiked

Jason Gowen has been sentenced to at least 20 years after brutally assaulting Fiona Robinson (Picture: SWNS/Lancashire Constabulary)

A ‘manipulative’ boyfriend who strangled a mum-of-two and told police she died after her drink was spiked has been jailed.

Jason Gowen has been sentenced to at least 20 years after brutally assaulting Fiona Robinson, 37, over a period of 24 hours in May.

She was found with bruises and bite marks across her body, while police also discovered multiple holes in the walls of the address and a damaged suitcase next to her body.

But Gowen, 27, told officers he thought Fiona had become ill after her drink spiked while out the previous night.

Yet CCTV footage played in court revealed how Fiona had been healthy when she made her way home on the evening of May 24 to her address in Chorley, Lancashire.

Gowen was lying in wait for her and over the next 24 hours, he brutally assaulted her before finally calling an ambulance.

A post-mortem examination revealed she had died from multiple injuries, with bruising around her neck consistent with strangulation.

She also had 16 fractured ribs, five fractures to her lumbar spine process and significant bruising, both old and fresh, over her entire body.

Her two teenage children said the death of their mum had left a ‘massive hole’ in their hearts.

They said: ‘Emotionally, a massive hole has been left in our lives and our hearts. It’s as if we have a constant physical ache in our chests.

‘I can be sat on a bus and hear children shout “mum”, or walk down the street and hear a child call out “mum”, and I realise that I’ll never be able to say that again myself.’

Speaking about Gowen, they added: ‘I feel anger towards him as he is the reason I didn’t see my mum for the last twelve months and the reason our mum isn’t here anymore.

‘If he had never entered our lives she would still be here.’

Gowen had been the subject of domestic abuse reports with a number of previous partners, even being charged with assault on a previous partner which was proceeding through the court process.

Fiona’s mother, Susan Dunstan, added that she’d felt as though she was living through a ‘nightmare’ after finding out how her daughter had died.

She said: ‘Since we lost Fiona, I haven’t been able to eat or sleep properly. It takes me hours and hours to drift off, and when I do all I can see is Fiona.

‘I find myself going through what must have happened over and over again. It is like living in a nightmare that I just want to wake up from.

‘As soon as I open my eyes she is in my thoughts. No mother should ever have to bury her child, especially in such circumstances.

‘I cannot get the image of Fiona, injured, out of my head. I have nightmares where I can see it taking place, but I am powerless to stop him.’

Gowen and Fiona had been in a relationship for 15 months when she in with him.

During that time, friends and colleagues raised a number of concerns in relation to injuries that they had witnessed.

They also raised concerns over the control they thought Gowen had over her.

Some of these led to reports to police and subsequent investigations and a disclosure under Clare’s Law was made to Fiona.

And it also showed that he had also been charged with an offence of assault on a previous partner which was proceeding through the court process.

For the offences committed against a previous partner, he also received 40 weeks which will run concurrently with the sentence he was handed down today.

Det Superintendent Mark Haworth-Oates, of the Lancashire Police, said after the hearing that the case was ‘utterly heartbreaking’.

He said: ‘Throughout her relationship with Gowen, Fiona was subjected to physical and psychological abuse, which culminated in the attack which killed her.

‘It is clear from speaking to her family that Fiona was a very much-loved daughter, sister, mum and friend and that her death has left a hole in many, many lives.

‘It is utterly heartbreaking, especially as her two children will now have to grow up without her.’