A husband who strangled his wife after an argument over frozen fries and then dumped her dismembered body in a country park has been jailed for life for murder.
49-year-old Thomas McCann strangled 46-year-old Yvonne, his 24-year-old wife, in the bathroom of their Stockport home after fighting over a bag of frozen chips from the freezer.
McCann then cut up the body of the mother of four and paused to send and reply to text messages for her children. He pretended her mother was still alive.
He later told police, “I killed my wife and disposed of her like trash” after he “lost control and couldn’t stop.”
McCann was jailed for life on Tuesday with a minimum sentence of 13 years and four months before parole. He will be in prison for no less than 12 years.
Judge Alan Conrad QC told the defendant, “Your actions after the murder are serious aggravating factors.
“The defense suggests a combination of selfishness and panic, but what you’ve done makes a terrible case even more terrible and annoying to those affected.
Yvonne McCann “was a woman for whom there was a lot to live and to whom one could look forward to when her life was cut short so cruelly”. Photo by Greater Manchester Police / PA
“Yvonne McCann was a woman who had a lot to live for and who was very much to look forward to when her life was cut so cruelly by you.”
Conrad said he took into account information from McCann’s attorney on harm control, including a psychological report that showed he had low self-esteem and difficulty expressing himself.
The judge added that he “considered the evidence before me that you were always a hard working family man who was a good father and that you also expressed remorse for what you did.”
Prosecutor Andrew Smith previously told the court that the couple had met as teenagers and had been together for 32 years until McCann attacked his wife on May 23 last year, the Saturday morning of the May bank holiday weekend.
Ms. McCann had started a relationship with another man around 2013, which led to her husband’s jealousy, the breakdown of the relationship, and ultimately her murder.
Smith said, “The trigger apparently was some used frozen chips. During this argument it is now clear that the defendant attacked Yvonne, strangled her to death in the bathroom and then dismembered her body in the bathtub. “
At the same time, he used his wife’s cell phone and his own to send and reply to text messages from their children. He said they had an argument and his wife left.
Parts of her body were discovered by walkers at Reddish Vale Country Park in Stockport on Monday over the public holiday.
Police were alerted and found two bags, then four more half a mile away in a different part of the park.
McCann was later captured on video carrying garbage bags to his car and on his way to the landscaped park.
He was later seen throwing eight plastic bags into a bin at the Bredbury recycling center.
In a victim impact statement from her children, Rachel Lawson, her daughter, said, “We all really have problems with this. We love our mother very much, we also love our father. “
In the UK, call the national domestic violence hotline on 0808 2000 247 or visit Women’s Help. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In Australia, the National Counseling Service for Domestic Violence can be reached on 1800 737 732. Further international hotlines can be found at www.befrienders.org.
