A man has been sentenced to life in prison for killing a Canadian teenager he met on a dating app.
Jack Sepple, 23, will serve a minimum of 23 years and six months behind bars after killing his girlfriend Ashley Wadsworth, 19, at the apartment they shared in Chelmsford, Essex.
Sepple stabbed Ms Wadsworth and carried out a “brutal and cowardly attack” and “caused approximately 90 injuries to her body without cause”, Judge Murray said.
Officers were called to an address on Tennyson Street on February 1 shortly after 4 p.m. following reports of a disturbance.
While paramedics tried to save Ms Wadsworth, she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Justice Murray said the couple met online when Ms Wadsworth was 12 and Sepple was about 15 and they had a long-distance relationship, but Sepple had relationships with other women during this time.
He added that Ms Wadsworth had arrived in the UK on a six-month short-stay tourist visa for a year before Christmas 2021.
The court heard they bought a kitten together, named Winston, and a neighbor said they were initially happy together.
Ashley Wadsworth. Photo: Facebook
The judge said that when the murder occurred, Ms Wadsworth was soon returned to Canada and that Sepple faced “an impending loss of control over her”.
Sepple admitted at an earlier hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court to her murder, and had no reaction when he was sentenced to life in prison at the same court on Monday.
Ms. Wadsworth wrote on Facebook that she moved to Chelmsford in November 2021. She is from British Columbia in Canada.
