Cage fighter stabbed his ex to death after ‘cocaine and alcohol binge’
A cage fighter accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend told jurors he ‘lost control’ and stabbed her to death after becoming ‘overwhelmed’ by revelations about her sex life.
Andrew Wadsworth, 37, repeatedly knifed beautician Melissa Belshaw, 32, in the front bedroom of her home in Billinge, Wigan, after bingeing on alcohol and cocaine on May 20.
Manchester Crown Court has heard Ms Belshaw admitted to Wadsworth days before her death that she had been receiving £1,200 a week for spending two hours with a ‘sugar daddy’ but had denied working as an escort since September 2019.
Jurors were told Ms Belshaw also dismissed Wadsworth’s persistent claims she had been sleeping with different people in Wigan and angrily denied she had sex with a relative on May 19.
Giving evidence on Wednesday, Wadsworth said he had ‘strong suspicions’ about her sexual activities but had ‘nothing nailed on to prove it’ until May 20, when he said he was ‘overwhelmed’ by her disclosures.
He said she admitted for the first time having been a sex worker ‘at some level’ throughout their relationship and that she had had sex with two of her relatives.
Wadsworth said Ms Belshaw also clarified rumours he heard about a sex party by saying she had multiple partners.
He further claimed she ‘fully admitted’ her part in setting up a robbery in which he broke his back.
Another issue, he told jurors, was about her ‘crying poverty… when she was earning a lot of money’.
Wadsworth said he had given her ‘thousands’ in cash before they split up last Christmas.
Prosecutor Tim Storrie QC suggested to him that he had become ‘obsessed’ with Ms Belshaw.
He asked: ‘The reason why you killed Melissa was, you say, you lost control at what she said. Do you mean you lost your temper?’
Wadsworth said: ‘No, I didn’t lose my temper. I lost control.’
Mr Storrie said: ‘Was it because you binged on drink and drugs, you believed in the nonsense and you decided to kill a woman who had irritated you for a long time?’
The defendant replied: ‘No.’
He added: ‘In less than 10 seconds Melissa had been stabbed to death. There was no prolonged attack.
‘If I did know what I was doing for those few seconds I would not have stabbed her in the first place.’
Mr Storrie said: ‘You have too little courage to admit what you have done – the cold, callous murder of Melissa Belshaw.’
The ex-professional mixed martial arts fighter said: ‘I don’t agree with murder. I didn’t intend to kill. There was no time for a thought to murder her.
‘I wish more than anyone that this did not happen, that she did not die.
‘I don’t take pleasure in taking someone’s life. It is the biggest thing that has ever happened to me. At one time I loved Melissa a great deal.’
He added: ‘I never felt such an intense feeling of being overwhelmed.’
The court has heard Wadsworth started dating Ms Belshaw in March 2018.
He had been released from jail on licence the previous November following convictions in 2011 for robbery, possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear or violence, aggravated burglary and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
He was recalled to prison in January 2019 and then released again on March 4 this year after a parole hearing.
Wadsworth denies murder and separate offences of attempting to murder a neighbour of Ms Belshaw and making a threat to kill against Ms Belshaw’s 13-year-old daughter.
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