Amy Leigh Barnes

A football coach who stabbed his model girlfriend to death in a frenzied knife attack has been jailed for a minimum of 24 years after being convicted of her murder.

Amy Leigh Barnes, 19, was left dying in a pool of blood after being repeatedly stabbed in the face and chest by Ricardo Morrison. 

Last night, as it emerged that Morrison, 22, had a history of violence against women, Amy's distraught father called for the death penalty to be re-introduced for violent murders.

Andrew Barnes, 41, who runs a tyre company, said: 'British justice is a farce. I believe in the death penalty - an eye for an eye.

'He stared right at me in court and it is a good job he was in a glass cage.'

Miss Barnes's mother Karyn Killiner, 41, an art teacher, said: 'It does not matter how many years in prison he gets, it will never be enough.'

In an impact statement to the court she said: 'My daughter was the centre of our world. I want to claw my way to her. My loneliness is indescribable.' 

Jailing Morrison for life with a minimum term of 24 years at Manchester Crown Court, Judge Alistair MacDuff said: 'When I first read the impact statement of Amy's mother I found tears welling up in me.' 

He told Morrison: 'You are an evil man with nothing to commend you. You are dangerous beyond words  -  there needs to be a sea change before you can be considered for release.'

Miss Barnes had texted friends in the weeks before her murder to say she feared for her life at the hands of her boyfriend who had been hitting her and threatened to kill her if she left him.

Yesterday it was revealed that Morrison, whose mother Melda Wilks is a serving police officer, had four previous convictions for assaulting an ex-girlfriend, including biting her on the face. 

The jury also had no idea Morrison is set to face trial after being accused of beating up five women in an argument at London's Zebranos nightclub on the night of Miss Barnes's 19th birthday.

The court was told that privately-educated Miss Barnes, of Bolton, modelled for glamour magazines and had appeared in the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks. 

It led to her being dubbed a 'wannabe WAG' by those who knew her because she aspired to the glitzy Footballers' Wives lifestyle. 

She was friends with Blackburn striker Benni McCarthy, and her former boyfriends included Manchester United defender Danny Simpson, Liverpool forward Nathan Eccleston and Stoke City defender Ibrahima Sonko. 

Early in 2008 Amy began a relationship with Morrison after meeting him through the social networking site, Facebook. 

But the relationship was turbulent and last November Miss Barnes, who was living with the amateur football coach at her grandmother's house in Farnworth, near Bolton, decided to leave him for good.

They were alone in the house on November 8 when Morrison punched Miss Barnes before leaving and locking her in. The row continued by text message with Miss Barnes calling him a 'wife beater' and telling him the relationship was over. 

She also phoned her mother and pleaded with her to come and get her.

Mrs Killiner called her ex-husband and he made his way to the terraced house, but Morrison had already returned and launched his attack with a kitchen knife before leaving Miss Barnes for dead.
Her father arrived to find her drifting in and out of consciousness. Mr Barnes said: 'Walking through the door was the hardest day of my life. No one should have to see that, not their little girl. Since then it has been a living nightmare.

'I just think if I had been ten minutes earlier this might not have happened. When the doctors told me Amy had died I felt like someone put their hand in my chest and ripped my heart out.'

Miss Barnes was taken to hospital where her mother was able to see her before she was taken for surgery.

 

Mrs Killiner said: 'As soon as I got to the hospital I ran in and I could hear Amy screaming. Her injuries were horrific and what he had done to Amy's beautiful face - I knew that was to completely disfigure her.

 

'They took Amy to theatre and she screamed "I want to die" and that was the last thing she said.'

After the attack Morrison fled back to his home in Birmingham and to his mother, claiming he had not touched Miss Barnes. 

Mrs Wilks, 50, allowed her son to wash his bloodstained clothes and was later charged with assisting an offender. 

She was cleared, but faces an internal disciplinary inquiry by her force, West Midlands Police.