Melissa Belshaw murder trial: Man accused of murdering Wigan mum tells court he was 'overwhelmed' by 'intense feeling'

An ex-cage fighter stabbed a Wigan mum to death after becoming “overwhelmed” by revelations about her sexual history and her role in an attack on him two years ago, a jury has heard
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Andrew Wadsworth, admits fatally knifing Melissa Belshaw at her home in Up Holland Road, Billinge on May 20, but denies her murder.

The 37-year-old, of Cranfield Road, Hawkley Hall, also denies attempted murder and making a threat to kill.

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At Manchester Crown Court yesterday, Wadsworth took to the witness box for the first time, a day after jurors watched his first police interview.

The trial is taking place at Manchester Crown SquareThe trial is taking place at Manchester Crown Square
The trial is taking place at Manchester Crown Square

Wadsworth told them he had “never felt such an intense feeling” after Ms Belshaw made apparent admissions about working as an escort, as well as revealing her role in an attack on Wadsworth at a house they had previously shared in Moor Road, Orrell - an incident he had long suspected she had helped to orchestrate.

Standing in the witness box, Wadsworth told the jury that, on the day he killed Ms Belshaw, he had agreed to meet up to consider getting back together, but only if she made frank admissions to him about past events.

When asked by defence barrister Andrew Byrne QC how and why he had killed Ms Belshaw, Wadsworth said: “We were drinking, taking drugs and talking a lot.

“We were both on the middle of the bed.

Melissa BelshawMelissa Belshaw
Melissa Belshaw

“We were talking in depth about quite a few things.

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“We were talking about the night of my attack [at Moor Road].

“Mel had previously said she was desperate to get back together. I couldn’t give her another chance. She knew how much it had affected me. She said, would I give her a chance if she told me about the events which had gone on?”

Mr Byrne QC asked: “You wanted to know how these people got into your house and attacked you?”

Wadsworth admitted so, and told the jury: “When she said she would tell me, she picked me up from around the corner, we went back to hers.

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“Later on, I approached the conversation. She couldn’t (talk). It was on the tip of her tongue but she said ‘I can’t, I can’t’.

Ms Belshaw eventually told Wadsworth what had happened, the court heard.

Wadsworth said: “She told me….we weren’t getting on at time, she was pressured into it, she needed money.

“She thought that a large amount of drugs was going to be kept in the house. And so she had given a key to people. She said ‘I never thought you’d get hurt like that. They told me they wouldn’t bring weapons.’”

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Wadsworth had been forced to flee the house by jumping out of a bedroom window, which caused him to break his back.

He went on: “She had given them a key to the front door.

“She told me who one was, a member of her family.”

He claimed he remained calm after learning about the attack, before they went on to discuss other matters.

This included Ms Belshaw’s sexual history and her work as an escort, as well as her arrangement with a “sugar daddy” who was paying her more than £1,000 a week.

“I had never experienced such an intense feeling of being overwhelmed, of the magnitude of what was actually being said”, Wadsworth said.

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“I just thought, how could you do this to me when I’ve been so good to you? How can you treat me like this?”

It was at this point that Wadsworth said he “just flipped”. He grabbed a knife, which was already on the bed and had been used to crush up cocaine, before stabbing her repeatedly.

“My mind just totally left my body,” Wadsworth had said.

He then ran outside to chase down neighbour Gerard Bristow after hearing his Liverpudlian accent through the window. Wadsworth told the court that he mistakenly thought he was another man with a similar accent, whom Ms Belshaw had had sexual encounters with.

The court was also shown CCTV footage of the immediate aftermath of the killing. In the video, Wadsworth could be seen chasing down Mr Bristow, one of the men who had come to the aid of Ms Belshaw’s 13-year-old daughter, who had been in the house at the time her mum was killed.

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The footage showed Wadsworth sprinting after Mr Bristow in the street and lunging at him with a knife.

Body-worn footage from a police officer then showed police surrounding Wadsworth and ordering him to drop his knife, which he did. Mr Bristow was then seen speaking to the officer, drenched in blood having been stabbed in the head and chest.

Proceeding.

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