Samantha eastwood killer michael stirling jailed for life for murder

Stirling, 32, who had an sordid affair with 28-year-old Ms Eastwood, of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, was jailed for a minimum term of 16 years at Stafford Crown Court after it emerged he

and his lover got into a bitter spat over whether he would leave his wife for her. He pinned her to the floor and put a hand over her mouth, restricting her airways. He then callously shoved

her dead body in the back of his van before eating dinner with his family and burying her body in a shallow grave. As Ms Eastwood’s family looked on from the public gallery during the

hearing, it emerged that when the midwife failed to show up for work triggering a huge search by police, Stirling sent texts from his slain lover’s phone to family to dupe them and even

offered up his help in the manhunt. Eight days after she was reported missing when she failed to show up for work at Royal Stoke University Hospital, her body was found in a quarry in

Caverswall. Stirling had pleaded guilty to murder in October. His barrister Charles Miskin QC told the judge then that the killing had not been premeditated, but had followed a period of

"growing tension" between the couple, leading to a row at her home in Greenside Avenue. Jailing Stirling, Mrs Justice Susan Carr said he acted “deliberately and without remorse”.

She said: “Samantha was alone in her home where she should have been safe and sound, and trusted you in her house. “On any view, she suffered what must have been a terrifying assault

resulting in a killing that was not immediate.   “She would have been aware that she was being strangled and smothered to death.” She added: “Beyond that, the most significant and obviously

aggravating factors are to be found not only in your concealment of her body, but in the sophisticated and mendacious cover-up that you maintained, not just for hours but for days in the

aftermath of Samantha's death - in the glare not only of local scrutiny but national publicity. “You intended permanent concealment, even though it only proved temporary. “But even that

deprived the family from any full opportunity to pay their respects and say goodbye to Samantha.” Stirling, the brother-in-law of Ms Eastwood’s ex John Peake and a landscape gardener, laid

a false trail for police hunting for the healthcare worker by putting her wedding dress and engagement ring out on the bed. He also texted Ms Eastwood’s sister from her phone saying: “Please

leave me alone”.