A violent killer who fatally smashed a school friend over the head with a scaffolding pole as a child stabbed his girlfriend to death during a drunken argument.
Mark Masefield, 53, murdered Marie Gladders with a kitchen knife at his house in Birmingham on November 12 last year, before the expiry date of an 11-and-a-half-year manslaughter sentence.
Birmingham Crown Court heard Masefield told police he had killed the 51-year-old during a row around two to three hours after the attack - telling officers "gingers are always feisty".
Before she died, Ms Gladders had told friends that he had violently attacked her, once holding a blowtorch to her head. Today Masefield was given a life sentence with a 20 year minimum term.
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