Shaye Groves tried to cover up the murder before shifting the blame onto her victim (Picture: PA)
A true crime fanatic who murdered her boyfriend in front of portraits of her favourite serial killers has been jailed for life with a minimum of 23 years.
Shaye Groves, 27, ‘snapped’ out of ‘jealousy’ after looking through 25-year-old Frankie Fitzgerald’s phone as he slept and finding messages with a 13-year-old girl, prosecutors said.
Groves, a mother-of-one, put a Celtic-themed dagger she bought for ‘pagan rituals’ to his throat as he slept, waking him up.
A brief struggle ensued in which she sliced his throat and stabbed him in the chest 17 times.
The 27-year-old tried to create a false alibi, telling her friend Frankie had stormed out after a row, but it fell apart after she excitedly showed her his dead body on a video call, saying: ‘I’ve done him’.
She then resorted to portraying herself as a victim of domestic abuse, sending the friend clips from the couple’s consensual BDSM sex tapes which she had edited to falsely make it look like he was abusing her.
In court she claimed Frankie had started throttling her during a row and that she ‘hit him in the neck’ with the dagger mistakenly, having meant to grab a money box beside her bed.
Jurors rejected her pleas of self-defence after hearing she failed to immediately call police and instead ‘cleaned up the crime scene’ and moved Frankie’s body.
Shaye Groves told a friend her victim had stormed off but later showed her his dead body (Picture: Solent News)
Frankie Fitzgerald was found with more than 17 knife wounds to his neck and chest (Picture: Solent News)
They were told she later told her friend: ‘I just lost it. I just lost it. I picked up my dagger and stabbed him in the neck.’
Steven Perian KC, prosecuting, said Groves’ obsession with true crime documentaries meant she was ‘familiar with a crime scene, how to create a false narrative and how to create a false alibi’.
The killer had previously threatened to make her on-and-off boyfriend’s life ‘a misery’ while he was alive by leaking the misleading footage, he added.
As well as stylised posters of infamous murderers including Myra Hindley and Jeffrey Dahmer, she also kept a set of horror-themed ‘decorative’ knives as well as Viking-themed axes hanging on her wall.
Shaye Groves told a friend her victim had stormed off but later showed her his dead body (Picture: PA)
Groves displayed framed portraits of serial killers including Myra Hindley, Jeff Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, Ted Bundy and Charles Manson (Picture: PA)
In addition to BDSM, the couple were ‘both into knife play when it came to intercourse’, jurors were told.
Mr Kerian added: ‘It is very likely she was obsessed with Frankie Fitzgerald because of his performance in the bedroom.
‘The killing of Frankie Fitzgerald is very likely to be a crime of passion driven by her jealousy.’
After her conviction, jurors were also told Groves had been dealing cannabis.
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Shaye Groves knifed Frankie Fitzgerald to death in a jealous rage in front of framed portraits of her favourite serial murderers.
