A fitness trainer was jailed for at least 30 years today for murdering a businesswoman on their first date.
Karl Taylor (right) stabbed Kate Beagley, a sales manager for Centrica, 31 times after the pair met for a drink. Her naked body was found after friends and family launched a frantic internet search during the four days she was missing.
Jailing Taylor, 27, for life at the Old Bailey, Judge Giles Forrester told Karl Taylor: “You are arrogant, manipulative and you are highly dangerous.”
There were cheers and weeping from Miss Beagley’s friends and family in the public gallery as the jury found Taylor guilty after only two hours of deliberation.
Miss Beagley met Taylor a few days earlier at the CC club in Central London and they exchanged phone numbers. But during the date at the Roebuck pub in Richmond Hill, Miss Beagley, of Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, appeared to be ignoring him.
Another customer, Maureen Roncone, told police: “As soon as they sat down, the girl had her head down, texting on her mobile phone. The man was talking to her but she was ignoring him, texting on her mobile.”
Taylor attacked her after they sat on the park bench to sip wine. Peter Clarke QC, prosecuting, said Taylor told police he stabbed Miss Beagley after telling her: “All I want is your car.”
He told officers: “She pushed me away. She was grabbing me and I stabbed her in the throat. I constantly and consistently cut her in the neck because she was going for my face.”