A court heard today that a serial killer-obsessed mother ‘giggled’ after brutally stabbing her lover to death before video-calling a friend to show her the body.
Shaye Groves, 27, allegedly told a friend, ‘I’ve done him,’ after launching an attack on sleeping boyfriend Frankie Fitzgerald. She had framed portraits of notorious killers such as Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer on her bedroom wall.
The mother-of-one is said to have used bladed articles in the bedroom for ‘knife play’ and enjoyed masochism, bondage, and submission with Mr Fitzgerald at her Havant home. She owned a set of decorative knives adorned with film villains.
Groves, who denies murder, is alleged to have stabbed her boyfriend 22 times in a ‘crime of passion’ on July 17 last year before creating a ‘false alibi’ using true crime documentaries as her inspiration.
Groves and Mr Fitzgerald rekindled an old romance after meeting in a pub in Cosham, Hampshire, in January last year.
Groves became ‘obsessed’ with Mr Fitzgerald’s ‘performance in the bedroom,’ with the couple’s sex life involving bondage, dominance, submission, and masochism, the court heard.
Jurors heard today at Winchester Crown Court that after the killing, Groves video-called friend Vikki Baitup, who was horrified to see his body with ‘an enormous’ knife wound.
Groves allegedly sent Ms Baitup a message in the early hours of July 17 in which she hoped to create a ‘false alibi’ by claiming Fitzgerald had left her home.
Ms Baitup told police how she received a phone call from a ‘giggling’ Groves who held a ‘very normal conversation’ where they discussed their weekend.
Groves then proceeded to start a video call, where she went upstairs to her bedroom and pointed the camera at Fitzgerald before stating: ‘I’ve done him’, the court heard.
Jurors heard Ms Baitup, who ‘couldn’t believe it was real’, asked the pair if they were ‘having me on’ – to which Groves went back up to her bedroom to show her Mr Fitzgerald’s body – wrapped in a duvet and lying on bin bags – twice more.
At one point during the call, when Ms Baitup raised her voice, Groves told her ‘shhh, the kids are in the house’.
Ms Baitup continued: ‘Groves got really close to the wound.
‘I don’t think I had really grasped what happened earlier. The gash was so deep – it was enormous.’
In response to Groves’ ‘calmly’ delivered explanation about what had happened – that she had gone through his phone and seen he was messaging ‘a teenage girl’ – Ms Baitup said: ‘While he was asleep she put the dagger through his neck and that’s when he woke.
‘He was sleeping, and she wasn’t in any danger. I could understand him attacking her, but she said he was sleeping and couldn’t even fight back.’
Ms Baitup told jurors that Groves had four ‘decorative’ knives hanging on the wall for her and Mr Fitzgerald because ‘both of them were into knife play when it came to intercourse’.
The four knives had depictions of Chuckie, Jigsaw and Pennywise on, and hung near two axes – all of which were ‘easily accessible to anyone’.
Ms Baitup told the court Groves had ‘watched enough murder documentaries’ – to know her plan to bury Mr Fitzgerald’s body ‘in the back garden’ wouldn’t work.
Such was her interest in murderers, Groves had framed portraits of notorious serial killers including Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, according to Ms Baitup.
Jurors heard from Ms Baitup that Groves was also known to ‘carry a knife’ with her ‘for safety’ when walking alone in the evenings.
At the end of the call, Ms Baitup said Groves’ last words were ‘we’re still friends aren’t we?’
The court heard a pathologist’s report which explained Mr Fitzgerald was stabbed 17 times to the front of the chest, twice to other chest areas and three to times to the neck – resulting in his death after ‘multiple perforations of heart and lungs’ and ‘catastrophic blood loss’.
Footage from officers who arrived at the scene was earlier played to the court, who reported an ‘incredibly strong’ smell of bleach in the bedroom.
source:nsemwokrom.com