Sheffield man who stabbed ex’s new partner to death jailed

A man who stabbed his ex-partner’s boyfriend to death at his home in Sheffield has been jailed for 14 years.

Michael James had assaulted the woman, who he still lived with on Barlow Drive, on 16 March, when her new partner Bradley Hollis came through the window planning to fight him for attacking her, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

James, 45, took a knife from the kitchen and fatally stabbed the 35-year-old in front of the woman, while children were upstairs.

James was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter and possession of a bladed article on Wednesday. He was jailed on Thursday for 14 years and given a restraining order preventing him from contacting the woman.

James had admitted one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Sentencing James, Judge Graham Reeds KC said his attitude to Mr Hollis had been “a mixture of jealousy and concern”.

“He had been intending to fight with you when he came through the window, but he was not fighting with a knife, and you were,” the judge said.

James left, taking with him the only phone in the house, which Judge Reeds said he had done “deliberately… knowing that would impede calling emergency services”.

He had attempted to dispose of the knife but was arrested a short time later in an outbuilding in Rivelin Valley.

Gemma Chapman, the mother of two of Mr Hollis’ daughters, said: “He had his problems in life but the girls were never aware of this… I could never fault him as a dad.”

She said he had helped raise her son “as if he was his own” and had been making “huge efforts to turn his life around” including through drug rehabilitation.

The mother of his eldest daughter said his death had created “a void, not just from losing who he was, but losing who he could have been”.

Mr Hollis’ family said his death had brought “previous trauma back to the front of our minds” as his mother was stabbed to death in 2008.

They said he had an “infectious laugh” and had always been “loving and respectful… he truly appreciated everything we did for him as a family”.

In a statement read to the court, Mr Hollis’ new partner, who had witnessed the fatal incident, said she would “never be able to move on from the loss of Bradley”.

“He was my soulmate, and I believe that kind of love only comes around once,” she said.

“We had so many plans for the future which have been taken away.”

James had hit her over the head with a bottle, grabbed her arm and punched her in the face, the court heard.

Judge Reeds noted that James’ children would also have to deal with the repercussions of his actions.

“The children in the home, asleep at the time, woke to the immediate aftermath of a dead person stabbed in their house by their father,” he said.

One of the children had also seen James assaulting their mother, the court heard.