A British man who claimed his partner was ‘obsessively jealous and beat him’ has been jailed for 25 years for stabbing her to death in their Italian dream home.
Michael Whitbread, 75, brutally murdered mother-of-three Michele Faiers, 66, before driving across Europe back to the UK in an attempt to flee justice.
Ms Faiers was discovered by a worried friend who had alerted police when she failed to answer calls.
She was found in a bedroom of the house she shared with IT consultant Whitbread in November 2023 but she had died two days earlier.
Her body was covered by a sheet, dressed only in her underwear and had been callously stabbed nine times – eight in the back and once in the chest.
The murder in the picturesque hilltop town of Verratti in in eastern Italy shocked expats who live in the area and his trial was attended by members of Ms Faiers family.
Police were told that Ms Faiers had ‘doubted her partner’s fidelity’, and that she was ‘thinking of leaving him and going back to England’.
She is said to have become ‘upset and suspicious’ about him after she saw him slap a female friend on the bottom at a New Year’s Eve party.
Before being sentenced at Lanciano court, Whitbread, who was originally from Torquay, Devon, asked for forgiveness from her three daughters, Sarah, Brooke and Harriet.
A British man who claimed his partner was ‘obsessively jealous and beat him’ has been jailed for 25 years for stabbing her to death in their Italian dream home. Michael Whitbread (L), brutally murdered mother-of-three Michele Faiers (right)
Pictured: The home of Michelle Faiers & Michael Whitbread in Verratti, Italy
Ms Faiers was found inside her rural home in Verratti village near Casoli, a town in eastern Italy
He said:’Michele, I will miss you for the rest of my life, I love you and I am sorry.
‘I am sorry for your death and for the pain I have caused your family. I always only loved you, but she accused me of having an affair with another English woman, which was not true, how would you have reacted.
‘I don’t know what happened, only a few days earlier we were talking about planting pear trees together.’
Prosecutor Mirvana Di Serio had called for a life sentence but the court – which took just 90 minutes to decide its verdict – gave him 25 years and ordered him to pay 100,000 Euro compensation to the three women.
Ms Di Serio told the court: ‘He killed her by stabbing her nine times, that was his intent.
‘She tried to defend herself and the defendant was capable and knew what he was doing.
‘He was lucid, he washed himself after the murder, got dressed and fled in his car.’
When his trial opened in January, Whitbread apologised to the court and said:’I wish I hadn’t done it,’ and also sent Ms Faiers family a letter offering his regret over what happened.
Whitbread blamed his partner’s ‘obsessive jealousy’ for his actions and said Ms Faiers beat him.
Michele Faiers pictured with her partner Michael Whitbread on holiday
The murder in the picturesque hilltop town of Verratti in in eastern Italy shocked expats who live in the area and his trial was attended by members of Ms Faiers family
In fact, Ms Faiers was herself attacked by Whitbread after a furious row between the couple just weeks before she died.
The attack left her ‘covered in bruises’ and ‘fearing for her life’ according to testimony from her close friend Petrina Keay – who found her lifeless at their farmhouse home near Chieti.
The prosecution file reveals Ms Faiers confided her doubts about Whitbread’s fidelity in her friend Petrina and was forced to sleep at her home for a week at the beginning of October 2023 after a violent row.
Petrina told detectives the ‘furious fight’ between Ms Faiers and Whitbread, had left her friend ‘fearing for her life’ and she had opened up to her about the bitter relationship in the days leading up to her death.
Ms Faiers was found dead on November 1 when Petrina called round, after becoming worried when she failed to return messages and found her lifeless in the bedroom.
Police have established she was killed four days earlier and Whitbread was held by British police in Shepshed near Loughborough, Leicestershire, after driving across Italy, Switzerland and France.
He was arrested at his daughter’s house – just hours after Ms Faiers was found – after she reportedly alerted police he was at her home after reading reports of the death on MailOnline.
Whitbread was described by neighbours to police as ‘always a bit tipsy’ while Ms Faiers was said to be ‘calm and serene’.
Police used CCTV to establish that Whitbread had the couple’s home in the early hours of October 29 in their Jeep Compass and began the 1,000 mile drive to the UK.
Traffic cameras picked him up crossing from Italy into Switzerland near Lake Maggiore at 4pm that afternoon, while his last cell phone ping was earlier that afternoon from nearby Como.
After sentence was passed Ms Faiers family lawyer Nadia Germana Tascona said:’The sentence from the Court has been respectfully accepted but clearly the family are having difficulty understanding the punishment.
‘For them the loss of their mother was very upsetting and the fact that he continued to repeat it was her fault was also not acceptable, we did not appreciate he kept insisting he was the victim in all this.’
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .