'I've just stabbed the missus': Murderer's 999 call released after conviction for screwdriver attack

Shane Clarke laughed as he told emergency worker he had stabbed his partner

A man who stabbed his partner to death with a screwdriver laughed during a 999 call to the emergency services and confessed he had just “stabbed the missus”.

Shane Clarke, 52, was jailed for life for the murder of 39-year-old Joanne Bishop at Oxford Crown Court.

The court heard on Friday how Mr Clarke launched a “frenzied attack” with the household tool at his partner’s home in Milton Keynes in May – stabbing Ms Bishop 28 times in the chest and back.

In a phone call to the emergency services after leaving the home, Mr Clarke told a shocked 999 operator: “I’ve just stabbed the missus”.

“I think she’s gone”, Mr Clake said, through laughter. “I think she’s dead mate.”

Asked repeatedly by the emergency worker to check on her condition, he replied: “No, I don’t want to go back there.”

Paramedics discovered Ms Bishop was still alive when they attended the property in Brent, Tinkers Bridge, in Milton Keynes.

Despite working “tirelessly” to save her life, she died in hospital four days later.

Shane Clarke (PA)

Sentencing the killer to life imprisonment, Judge Ian Pringle QC said: “The sheer nature of this attack was utterly brutal.

“It is said that the defendant reacted in this way because of something Ms Bishop said about the nature of their relationship.

“She had every right to say that she wanted you out of her home,” he told Clarke.

Following the guilty verdict, Clarke gave the judge a thumbs up and again laughed as he was led away by security officers to the cells.

Detective Inspector Stuart Blaik of Thames Valley Police, the senior investigating officer in the case, described the 999 call as “horrific” and noted the killer’s lack of remorse.

“Shane Clarke stabbed his partner Joanne Bishop in the torso and back with a screwdriver 28 times in a frenzied attack inside her home on the morning of Tuesday 29 May this year.”

“Clarke callously left the address and sometime later called the South Central Ambulance Service.

“Clarke’s telephone conversation with the ambulance operator was horrific. He displayed no remorse or care for what he had done.”