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00:0136-year-old Wayne Coventry is looking for a partner.
00:04Wayne just wanted to be loved.
00:07But has he found the right one?
00:09Cadelia, she's got an evil streak in her, definitely.
00:13If she couldn't have Wayne, no one else could have him.
00:15Sometimes choosing a partner is the most dangerous thing we can do.
00:19He was absolutely presodic with her. He loved her to death.
00:23His devotion comes at a cost.
00:26Cadelia stabbed him in the back with a broken blight.
00:28Blood everywhere.
00:30She just smacked as if she knew what she was doing.
00:33Wayne Coventry, Cordelia Farrell, a fatal match.
00:53A bird's eye view of an ordinary town,
00:56which in 2019 saw an extraordinary love story involving a man called Wayne Coventry.
01:03A man close to his family.
01:07I was quite overprotective of Wayne.
01:10I was nine when he was born, and I loved it, having another little brother.
01:18Always got a smile on his face, like a Cheshire cat.
01:22I've never known anyone who smiled so much, to be fair.
01:25He just always had a grin on his face.
01:31He was bubbly and a normal child.
01:36He used to make us laugh a lot.
01:40Even as he grew up, he still used to make us laugh.
01:45Occasionally, the brothers overstepped the mark.
01:48I'd done something wrong when I was younger.
01:52I'd nicked loads of archery equipment.
01:54Police come out and search my mum and dad's eyes.
02:00Stolen some bows.
02:02And they did them behind the shed in the garden.
02:06Police couldn't find nothing.
02:08I'm just about to leave, and then my little brothers popped up and goes,
02:11I'd be all in the shed.
02:13And obviously, that was it.
02:16Yeah, got nicked there and then on the spot.
02:18And that's one thing that always stuck in my mind.
02:21He got away with it until he opened his mouth.
02:30As a teenager, Wayne falls for a local girl.
02:34According to older brother Sean, they have a good relationship.
02:38The first girl he went out with, he was with her for roughly 18 years.
02:44He was like a one-woman man, which was really good.
02:47When he was with someone, he was devoted to them.
02:50He was only 16, I think, when they had the first child.
02:54He ended up with three children.
02:56A girl, then a boy, and then a girl again.
02:59He did love the kids' mum to bits.
03:01All he had done.
03:02His kids meant the world to him.
03:04He absolutely adored them.
03:11I lived together, and I moved down Devon together.
03:15Yeah, he moved there with his partner and his kids.
03:19Didn't see him for years after that.
03:23They were great together until, I don't know exactly what,
03:26I think they just petered out.
03:28In June 2017, the end of the relationship marks a painful turning point for Wayne
03:35as he faces the reality of leaving his children 200 miles behind.
03:42Then, obviously, when he moved back, moved up to Bronze Grove.
03:46He had his children stay with him at weekends and stuff like that.
03:49He doted on his children.
03:52His kids meant the world to him.
03:53He missed them when he weren't around them.
04:04Wayne will have been dramatically impacted by losing the family that he built up in his first relationship.
04:13This is somebody whose meaning, purpose in life, is now gone.
04:18It's somebody who now needs a strong figure, a dominant figure, somebody to lead him, give him direction.
04:26That somebody would be Cordelia, sometimes known as Delia Farrell.
04:31Wayne told me once and twice he'd been speaking with Cordelia.
04:37They lived in the same area, so they bumped into each other.
04:44He brought her up here.
04:45They had Sunday dinner and that.
04:48I mean, they're quite funny as a couple as well.
04:51My brother used to have this hot sauce that I don't know where he used to get it from,
04:54but it's the hottest thing I've ever tasted in my life,
04:56and they used to play each other up.
04:58And when they'd done them a Sunday dinner and that,
05:00my brother's come in and got it, and he squirted it into a roaster.
05:03She was like...
05:05Yeah, he seemed very happy.
05:08He just fought for that one person, and he did.
05:13He proper fell for her.
05:15There was no getting them away from each other.
05:18He absolutely fought the world over.
05:21To start with, he did introduce me to her, and we did talk.
05:28Wayne and Cordelia were mostly laughing together and enjoying each other's company,
05:32but then there was that part of her that just was totally different.
05:41I took an instant dislike to her with her attitude and everything.
05:46She used to hide from me.
05:48I mean, locking herself in the toilet or in the bedroom just because I was there was ridiculous.
05:54I mean, I've never armed a female.
05:57She couldn't think that I'd knock her about or anything.
06:00I've never hit a female in my life, so I used to think he was stupid.
06:05Every time Wayne's father visits, we have Cordelia hiding, staying well out of the way.
06:11For me, it's as if she doesn't want to fully understand Wayne.
06:18She doesn't want to hear more about Wayne, to meet his family, because to do so would humanise Wayne.
06:24And at the moment, Wayne is just playing a particular role, a particular character within a melodrama that I think
06:32the two of them have created.
06:43Cordelia's behaviour can in part be explained by the fact that she was diagnosed with an underlying personality disorder and
06:52the personality disorder that she got diagnosed as having was emotionally unstable personality disorder,
06:59which used to be, in my day, called borderline personality disorder, the borderline between neurosis and psychosis.
07:06But in layperson's terms, what that means is simply you're riding an emotional rollercoaster with somebody that has this diagnosis.
07:17They're volatile.
07:19They're self-destructive.
07:20And that's partly because they have no sense of self.
07:24And so some days they're really kind, some days they're really pleasant to be around, and the very next day,
07:31sometimes within an hour, they can be a completely different personality.
07:36Because they have no fixed sense of who they are.
07:41And of course, if you're riding a rollercoaster, emotionally, some days you want to love and care.
07:49But the very next day, you might want to kill.
07:54With Cordelia knowing that Wayne was a decent chap, wanting a loving relationship, this gave Cordelia the upper hand.
08:03It gave her the opportunity to control that relationship.
08:08If he went anywhere, she'd have to know where or why.
08:11She didn't want him being around other women.
08:15Even though he weren't into other women when he was with someone, he wasn't that kind of person.
08:19Wayne wasn't, but Cordelia obviously thought he was.
08:23Wayne might not have been that type of person, but he does begin to make up stories of affairs with
08:29other women, which triggers Cordelia's jealous streak.
08:34There was a jealous streak with Cordelia as well, which is extremely worrying and surprising, really, when you think, if
08:40Wayne doted on her that much, why would she be jealous?
08:42Yes, because he's the one for her.
08:45If she didn't want him doing something, she'd stop him.
08:50Kind of paints a picture of this controlling, coercive behaviour by Cordelia.
08:55She stopped him doing a lot of things and seeing a lot of family members.
08:58Very controlling.
09:08During this time, Wayne has few pleasures in life.
09:11Wayne loved his motorbike, he loved them.
09:15Always tinkering about with cars or bikes, he was.
09:1845, it was bikes.
09:20He loved his bikes, Wayne.
09:24He loved his motorbike.
09:26He got it while he was living down Devon.
09:30Then, one day, the motorbike is stolen.
09:35So when it's stolen, his motorbike, they dismantled it.
09:40We found it further up the road in an alleyway, dismantled.
09:45Around this time, luck just didn't seem to be on his side.
09:50So we never got to ride the bike again.
09:56Those who know Cordelia and Wayne are increasingly concerned.
10:01Sometimes fuelled by drugs and alcohol, they often fight,
10:05because, of course, drugs and alcohol are going to make them disinhibited,
10:09and some of those underlying tensions come to the surface.
10:18They'd had a number of arguments.
10:20She would wind him up on occasion.
10:22She would watch YouTube videos that starred her ex-boyfriend in there
10:26to try and get a rise from him,
10:28and almost sort of looking for a fight with him.
10:34She'd get dressed up and then say that she's going out to meet blokes
10:37and that, because she knew it had wind him up.
10:40I mean, she used to phone him up or having sex with other men.
10:45Just so we could hear it and everything when it would get to him.
10:49What Cordelia does, this calling him while she's having sex with other men
10:55and watching videos of ex-partners, tells me two things.
11:00One, that to Cordelia, sexual power is incredibly important.
11:07And number two, that she doesn't feel she can achieve this through normal, healthy means.
11:14Every time Cordelia carried out some kind of abuse on Wayne,
11:20the inhibitions were reduced further.
11:23Each and every act just set the scene for the next.
11:27We tried to get her hardest to get her away from her,
11:29but obviously you can't protect her when it's going through something like that.
11:33He wasn't ready to leave her. He loved her too much.
11:35The more you allow and permit this toxic behaviour to continue,
11:41the more normalised that toxic behaviour becomes.
11:46You forgive it. You expect it.
11:49To be in a controlling and coercive relationship for a long time
11:54normalises what is actually toxic within the relationship.
11:59And of course, if that is allowed to continue, that's very dangerous indeed.
12:06If you've tried to explain to him that you got her wrong one, he wouldn't listen.
12:13As far as he was concerned, she was the right one.
12:16He was that bizarly with her.
12:20He absolutely loved her to death.
12:23But his father, Barry, becomes increasingly concerned.
12:27Some of the things he overhears are extremely worrying.
12:31She used to threaten him a lot over the phone.
12:34I've even heard her turn around and threaten to kill him.
12:36The fact that he expects this kind of treatment,
12:40so when he receives it, it's just what he anticipates.
12:45And he blames himself to some degree,
12:48and it triggers him to seek her approval more,
12:52rather than having the effect that it should have,
12:55which is to make him immediately leave the relationship.
13:01Wayne never thought about leaving Delia.
13:04He even turned round and said,
13:06would he come and live with me?
13:08I'd got a bed in the conservatory.
13:10He could have stopped in the conservatory and lived with me.
13:13But no, he wanted to be with Delia.
13:17Everybody tried the hardest.
13:19Everybody tried to explain this is bad for you.
13:21You can't keep on going through what you're going through,
13:23but he stuck with it at the time when she loved her.
13:27He used to say, look, I can't, Sean, I love her.
13:30You just can't do nothing, can you?
13:32It's increasingly clear Cordelia and Wayne are in a toxic relationship
13:37that they are both wedded to.
13:40It's quite clear that Wayne was keen to continue with the relationship
13:44with the Cordelia as she was with him.
13:46So it's very difficult to try and manage that situation
13:49when both parties don't want to leave.
13:51Having only recently separated from his partner of 18 years,
13:56Wayne doesn't want to be alone.
13:58They work together in a relationship,
14:01but in a very dysfunctional, pathological way.
14:05Most people would run for the hills
14:08when experiencing this kind of psychological abuse
14:12within an intimate relationship.
14:14Only Wayne's family know about the abuse he claims to suffer
14:18at the hands of Cordelia.
14:20In this situation, we've got a man
14:23who hasn't reported domestic abuse.
14:26And, of course, there are some overlaps
14:28with why women don't report domestic abuse,
14:31fear of shame, for example.
14:33However, there are added elements
14:36when the man is the victim and the woman is the perpetrator.
14:40And, of course, that relates to ideas,
14:42often outdated ideas of masculinity.
14:46By being seen as being the victim of a woman
14:50who is domestically abusing the man,
14:52the man's sense of who he is is fundamentally altered,
14:58he believes, in the eyes of our culture.
15:09In 2019, the police received a telephone call
15:12from Wayne complaining
15:14that he'd been attacked by Cordelia.
15:19She went round to his flat and that,
15:21and they were having a bit of food and a bit of drink,
15:23and then she sort of pretended that she wanted to have sex,
15:26so she put her hand down his pants.
15:30The next thing he knows is she's grabbing on his testicles,
15:33really badly pulling down on it.
15:37It was a vicious attack.
15:38He described being grabbed by the testicles
15:40and literally pulled around the room.
15:43Because of the pain and everything of that,
15:45my brother actually passed out at that stage.
15:48And the next thing he remembers is coming round
15:50with her literally trying to boil it off.
15:55She was scary when she wanted to be.
15:59Very.
16:05Cordelia is violent because, in her case,
16:10her underlying personality disorder
16:12doesn't give her a fixed centre that she's comfortable with.
16:17She's constantly frightened that she's going to be abandoned,
16:21and therefore that sense of being emotionally volatile
16:25is because it comes from a place
16:28where she doesn't actually know who she is.
16:32When you look at photographs of Cordelia,
16:34it's quite clear she's a very sexual woman,
16:37and she would be very conscious
16:39of how she could use her looks in relationships
16:45as a means by which she could control her partners.
16:49Add to that her emotional volatility,
16:53that's a very dangerous combination of factors.
16:59Eventually, when he got around,
17:00he thought the police and the ambulance had turned up,
17:02so he was going to open the door,
17:03and that's when she stabbed him in the back
17:04with a plate as well.
17:12When the police actually arrived,
17:13what they established was that not only she had bitten him,
17:17but also stabbed him in the back with some broken crockery,
17:19so this was quite serious.
17:22I mean, 58 sets of teeth marks,
17:24they were all in his bits, his testicles.
17:26So at that point, Cordelia was arrested
17:28and taken into custody for questioning.
17:32She said she was defending herself from an attack from Wayne,
17:36but what was surprising was there were no injuries on Cordelia.
17:40At the conclusion of that interview,
17:42she makes a chilling statement.
17:44One of them will end up dead.
17:51He called me from the hospital while he was in the hospital bed.
17:54You knew it was going to happen eventually, you know what I mean?
17:57She just went that far with things.
17:59It was just unbelievable.
18:02This wasn't a usual domestic dispute,
18:05whereby the couples have had a row and just fallen out and raised voices.
18:09This was a particularly vicious, nasty physical assault
18:12on a man by a woman, which is unusual in itself.
18:16It was embarrassing to say that you're getting beat up
18:20and terrorised a boy woman.
18:23Many didn't look saying it to me,
18:25but you could see it.
18:27And it was hard to watch when it was happening.
18:31When it's a male victim,
18:33often there's a deep-seated sense of shame and embarrassment
18:36at being attacked by a female perpetrator.
18:59Cordelia would one day tell a court
19:00she suffered at the hands of Wayne too.
19:03He was never charged with an offence,
19:05but there's little doubt theirs is a highly volatile and toxic relationship.
19:11Having interviewed Cordelia and had her account
19:15where she is claiming that she was defending herself from an argument,
19:19the police don't have sufficient evidence to charge her,
19:22and so she's released.
19:24The police need to investigate further.
19:26While they do, safeguards are put in place.
19:31Cordelia was actually under two different non-molestations orders
19:35from things that she was doing to my brother.
19:38Non-molestation orders issued by the courts
19:40protect a victim of abuse
19:42by preventing their abusers from contacting them.
19:46But Wayne and Cordelia are still seeing each other.
19:50Oh, he was at risk, but you couldn't tell him.
19:55He wouldn't listen to anybody.
19:58There was no getting him away from each other.
20:00He absolutely fought the world over.
20:02When you look at the assault that took place on Wayne by Cordelia,
20:05any normal person would step back from that and think,
20:08that's it, that's the end of the relationship,
20:10you know, I've had enough.
20:11But that didn't happen with Wayne and Cordelia.
20:16The pattern we see here is Cordelia
20:19being the one to attack Wayne.
20:22He reacts, he responds,
20:24but he's rarely proactively initiating violence.
20:32However, around this time,
20:34Wayne reveals a shocking incident to his older brother.
20:37I received a message of him saying,
20:39I don't think we need to speak.
20:42And then all of a sudden,
20:43I've seen a picture of my brother
20:45that I didn't even recognise him.
20:47He was just all black and blue.
20:52Seeing pictures of him,
20:53I couldn't stand him being beaten up like that.
20:57I wanted to get him there and keep him safe as well,
20:59so I made him get a taxi from the hospital,
21:01which was in Birmingham all the way up there.
21:04After the mysterious beating,
21:06Wayne's family rallies around.
21:08We sort of kept lying up there,
21:10being a bigger brother and that.
21:11I just wanted to try and protect him as much as I could.
21:13In fact, Wayne is now staying with his brother, Sean,
21:17in an attempt to keep him away from Cordelia.
21:21But he can't resist her.
21:22He kept on disappearing and that.
21:25He was sitting in a hotel with one of his mates.
21:29We put two and two together
21:31and we realised it was Cordelia.
21:34And Cordelia couldn't do anything wrong in his eyes.
21:38That's how much he thought of her
21:40and how much he loved her.
21:41He didn't want to be apart from her.
21:44Their relationship is like an addiction,
21:48something they feel they need,
21:50yet it brings them emotional
21:53and increasingly now physical pain.
21:56And it's a difficult cycle to break,
21:59growing more intense over time.
22:02And it's an addiction
22:03that is heading towards disaster.
22:17Wayne Coventry's bond to Cordelia Farrell
22:20is too strong.
22:22Despite promises to family that he would,
22:25he can't stay away.
22:28The couple are meeting in secret.
22:30They've been sleeping in the tent together.
22:32After what happened in September
22:34and all the other things that she'd done with him,
22:37when we found out that there was a zone in the tent,
22:39we did say to Wayne, my brother,
22:41to bring Cordelia up and stay here.
22:44Because we thought he'd be better off staying here
22:46so we could keep an eye on him.
22:47She said to my partner and myself before
22:49that she'd like to bicker with him
22:50to keep him on his toes.
22:53She used to dollop and say to him
22:55that she was going out,
22:55even if she weren't going out,
22:57just so she could wind him up.
23:03The one thing Cordelia needs more than anything
23:06is to feel powerful within her relationships.
23:09And Wayne needs to be with somebody valuable,
23:12somebody dominant,
23:13somebody powerful, somebody significant.
23:15So the more she abuses him through this behaviour,
23:18the more he wants her.
23:19And the more he wants her, the more powerful she feels.
23:23They work together in a relationship,
23:26but in a very dysfunctional, pathological way.
23:30It's a very effective relationship,
23:32but one that is heading for disaster.
23:36She looked at us one day and she went,
23:39my name's Dee.
23:40And then she sort of turned around to him
23:41and went, my name's Cordelia.
23:43As if she brought two different sides to her.
23:48She's developing different strategies,
23:50different personas with different names are coming forward.
23:54When she was loving and bubbly and that,
23:56it was good, but then she could just snap.
24:00And then everything just went to part.
24:02It will be evident to other people
24:04that this is somebody very changeable, unpredictable,
24:07that they don't know what they're going to get.
24:09And it's because there is no stable core to Cordelia.
24:14This is somebody who is forever poised for battle,
24:19ready to be triggered.
24:24One minute should be fine,
24:25and the next minute it should be a totally different person.
24:27People with this personality disorder
24:30are incredibly reactive, triggerable.
24:33They are volatile emotionally.
24:35They're not able to cope with any kind of disrespect
24:39or dishonour or any kind of assumed attacks on them
24:43and who they are at all.
24:46My partner actually said to Cordelia,
24:48home front of Wayne,
24:49you're going to end up killing him, you are.
24:52She just smirked.
24:55Behind the closed doors of Sean's home,
24:58the matters of Wayne and Cordelia are coming to a head.
25:02They got up in the morning,
25:04there was sort of bickering.
25:06Ever willing to taunt her boyfriend,
25:09Cordelia spots an opportunity.
25:11My daughter came here.
25:13She was a prison officer,
25:14so obviously she used to turn up in her prison gloves
25:16and everything like that.
25:17And Cordelia tried it on with my daughter
25:20in front of my brother to try and wind him up.
25:23She just kept on pulling it on her,
25:25trying to sit on her lap,
25:26trying to flirt with her.
25:31She started doing him upstairs in the bedroom
25:34where she scratched all his face
25:35and ripped his T-shirt.
25:37I've had to run up
25:38and sort of say,
25:39Wayne, come down and leave it.
25:41And he'd come down,
25:42he'd sit in the living room with me.
25:43And she'd just carry on,
25:45just trying to get a reaction out of him.
25:48But she couldn't get a reaction out of him
25:50and I kept on pulling him away to stop
25:52it getting any further.
25:55There was a point where
25:56she kicked him down the stairs
25:58and I had to run out
25:59and see what was going on again.
26:00She turned around and said
26:01that he'd kicked her up the stairs,
26:03but it was Wayne
26:05to come flying down the stairs.
26:08It just got worse through the day.
26:12My brother did retaliate
26:13and slice some of her clothes up,
26:15two of her jackets that she had.
26:18Wayne's retaliation
26:19makes her behaviour worse.
26:22This is everything that she cannot bear.
26:25This is everything
26:25that she is fighting against,
26:27this sense of feeling overpowered.
26:30The move wasn't one Farrell
26:32was going to accept.
26:35My brother's coming in through the gate
26:37and my 11-year-old sonny's
26:39stood in front of my brother like that,
26:41as if protecting him.
26:44Even my son witnessed what was going on
26:46and was obviously trying to protect his uncle, Wayne.
26:48There's a few people at the house.
26:51Wayne and Cordelia go into the kitchen
26:53and an argument ensues.
27:03Standing up for himself
27:05is not what Cordelia expects of Wayne.
27:08The feeling of being challenged
27:11would have overwhelmed her,
27:13triggering every instinct to fight back.
27:16And in the heat of the confrontation in the kitchen,
27:20the most common place in Britain
27:22where somebody will be killed,
27:24Cordelia reacts.
27:26It's roughly about seven o'clock.
27:29I had a commotion from in the living room,
27:31so I've come to the gate there
27:33and as I've got to the gate,
27:36Cordelia grabbed a knife out the knife block
27:37that was on the side just there.
27:40She was stood at the cooker with the blade in her hand
27:43and it was the biggest one out the block.
27:46She was stood here with a knife
27:47behind my brother's back,
27:49obviously because I seen the knife,
27:50I've shouted, Wayne.
27:52He sort of took a couple of steps forward
27:54and then it was literally as if she was waiting
27:56for him to turn around.
28:00As he's sort of turned around,
28:03she's plunged the knife straight in.
28:08My brother-in-law shouted,
28:10don't pull the knife out.
28:13But she just pulled it out and smirked
28:16as if she knew what she was doing.
28:18And my son was stood right by the side of her
28:21when she'd done it.
28:22A little 11-year-old boy.
28:26It was like my brother didn't realise
28:28what had happened at that time.
28:30So he's carried on and walked to here
28:33and then he sort of must have realised
28:36so he's turned around
28:37and he's just shouted, Sean,
28:38and that was it.
28:40He sort of fell down onto the floor here.
28:44People say he frees.
28:45I've never understood it before,
28:47but I literally was stuck.
28:49I couldn't move.
28:53And then that's when I've come running in,
28:54phoning 999 for the ambulance
28:58and the police and that.
28:59And obviously I've had to get down on the floor
29:02and start counting my brother's last breaths
29:04as if it was on the floor.
29:08So having stabbed Wayne, Cordelia immediately flees the address
29:13and we don't know where she's gone.
29:14This leaves Wayne in a critical state in his brother's arms.
29:18She had literally dropped the knife and walked out.
29:21My brother's dying on the floor.
29:25And then obviously you've seen all the colours start to drain.
29:28And all his breathing had gone for me
29:33and I was on the phone to the ambulance
29:34and they were asking me to count his breaths
29:36and I think about that.
29:37It was hard.
29:39I couldn't do it.
29:40I had to get some help.
29:41Come and do it.
29:55Sean phoned me
29:58and says that Delia had stabbed Wayne
30:01and she'd gone.
30:09When the ambulance turned up
30:11I did run out there and try and say
30:12look, he's not breathing
30:14because he had actually stopped breathing.
30:16My brother-in-law was doing CPR and that.
30:18I was on the phone for
30:21three,
30:23three, four hours.
30:24During that time
30:25the paramedics were there.
30:27They revived him for a couple of minutes.
30:34They kept him in here for hours
30:36and they'd done open heart surgery in the kitchen
30:38but they stated that when they got his heart out
30:40there was no blood left in his body.
30:42She had severed the main artery to his heart.
30:47Eventually when they'd finished doing the work
30:50in here with Wayne
30:51they'd literally come in and pronounce him dead at the time.
30:56Heartbreaking.
31:04I couldn't sleep that night after that.
31:08I was awake, couldn't sleep
31:10and then the following day
31:12I'd come down
31:14shore.
31:17But of course
31:18there was nothing I could do.
31:30all this
31:31bruising and everything
31:32that he'd had
31:33from the previous fight
31:35because it was only a couple of weeks before
31:38all come out on him
31:40when he was dead.
31:42So
31:43it
31:44wasn't in my mind at all.
31:49didn't look like him at all
31:50covered in bruises.
31:53For Wayne's brother and father
31:55their worst fears
31:57had become a reality.
31:59She'd kept saying
32:00that she'd
32:01murder him.
32:02She even told my brother-in-law
32:03in the morning
32:04my partner's brother
32:05Wayne's dead today
32:06I'm going to kill him.
32:08But you don't think
32:09nothing of that
32:10you know what I mean
32:10but obviously she meant it.
32:14No I never thought
32:16it would actually happen.
32:18I need to protect him
32:20and I couldn't
32:22the last thing he shouted
32:23was Sean
32:31I couldn't do nothing.
32:36Although it was a single stab wound
32:38the attack
32:39was particularly vicious
32:41requiring significant force
32:43to pierce through the chest.
32:45Cordelia
32:46was clearly enraged
32:48and intended to cause harm
32:50when she picked up the knife.
32:52So this has now become
32:54a murder investigation
32:55with Cordelia
32:56as the prime suspect
32:58and she's on the run.
33:00Is anyone else at risk?
33:03Scared the living
33:03dialogues out of my son.
33:05I mean after witnessing
33:06what he witnessed in here
33:07watching his uncle
33:08get murdered
33:09and then dying
33:10he was worried
33:11about her coming back.
33:17It's important
33:18to try and get hold
33:19of Cordelia
33:19as quickly as possible
33:20not only to ensure
33:22that she is in custody
33:23and can't cause
33:24any harm to anyone else
33:25but also she then
33:26can't cause harm to herself
33:27or destroy any further evidence.
33:33They've moved me and my partner
33:34to a hotel
33:36while they obviously
33:37busy with forensic evidence
33:39and everything like that.
33:42So the police
33:43would be doing
33:43their normal sort of inquiries
33:45of door to door
33:46speaking to friends
33:47and family
33:48looking at social media
33:49if she had a mobile phone
33:51then they'd be trying
33:52to track her through that
33:53and also any financial inquiries
33:55in certain locations
33:56that might help
33:57close the net
33:57and bring her into custody.
34:01Was Cordelia Farrell
34:03coming to terms
34:04with what she had done?
34:06I think that
34:07having killed
34:08somebody that clearly
34:10she was intimately
34:11involved with
34:13will have brought her
34:14face to face
34:15with the person
34:16that she has become
34:17and she now tries
34:19to run from that.
34:20She's not just running
34:21from the police
34:22she's running from
34:23the reality
34:24of what she has become.
34:30If somebody
34:31doesn't want to be found
34:32then it's fairly easy
34:34to go into hiding
34:36for a considerable
34:37period of time
34:38particularly if you
34:39effectively go off the grid
34:40you know
34:41you turn off your phone
34:42you're not on social media
34:43you're not in contact
34:45with friends and family
34:46you're just hiding out somewhere.
34:48Throughout the Midlands
34:49as pressure mounts
34:51on police
34:51to find Wayne's killer
34:52Farrell's shock
34:54detectives
34:55with her next move.
34:56Five days into
34:58the investigation
34:59having discovered
35:01Wayne dead at that address
35:04Cordelia
35:05surprisingly
35:06gives herself up
35:07to the police.
35:11That's not unusual
35:12under the circumstances
35:13if the police
35:14have been putting
35:15a lot of pressure
35:16on friends and family
35:17who may have been
35:18in contact with Cordelia.
35:21But then eventually
35:22when the phone call
35:23gone through to say
35:24that she'd been got
35:25it was a relief.
35:26The police
35:27still had a job to do.
35:29So having given
35:31herself up
35:31police would have
35:32secured Cordelia
35:33very quickly
35:34brought her into custody
35:35and they would have
35:36forensically examined her
35:38make sure that she
35:39hasn't got any injuries
35:40herself
35:40you know
35:41was there a fight
35:42has she got any
35:43defensive injuries
35:43that need to be recorded
35:45has she got any
35:47forensic evidence
35:48on her
35:48that would suggest
35:49she is responsible
35:50even though we've got
35:51eyewitnesses that say
35:51she was
35:52she could still argue
35:53that and so is there
35:54any forensic evidence
35:55that we need to recover
35:56and also you know
35:57was she under the
35:57influence of alcohol
35:59or drugs at the time
36:00and so various samples
36:01would have been taken
36:02for analysis.
36:04With Cordelia in custody
36:06the police secured
36:07evidence
36:08and examined her
36:09for any injuries
36:10or signs of substance use.
36:14While eyewitnesses
36:15pointed to her
36:16the investigation
36:17had to be thorough.
36:19Farrell may have
36:20handed herself in
36:21but contrary to all
36:23the popular
36:24common sense myths
36:25she's not going to
36:27admit to murder
36:28and very few
36:29murderers actually do.
36:42The 37-year-old
36:44Cordelia Farrell
36:45has handed herself
36:47into the police
36:48but despite witnesses
36:50to the murder
36:50of Wayne Coventry
36:52the case
36:53will prove
36:53to be far
36:54from straightforward.
36:57When Cordelia
36:58is interviewed
36:59the officers
37:00put a number
37:00of questions to her
37:01and she wouldn't
37:02answer any questions
37:03and so the police
37:04are then left with
37:05well we've got
37:06Wayne dead
37:07we've got
37:08the brother
37:09who's a witness
37:09and we've got Cordelia
37:11who's been on the run.
37:14The only assumption
37:15we can make
37:15from that
37:16is that she's
37:16murdered Wayne
37:17and she intended
37:17to kill him
37:19and so they go
37:20to the Crown
37:21Prosecution Service
37:21for an authority
37:23to charge her
37:23with murder of Wayne.
37:28Cordelia
37:29opened up a plea
37:29for manslaughter
37:31as an alternative
37:32to the murder
37:35and what she's saying
37:36effectively
37:37is that she admits
37:38to being responsible
37:39for the killing
37:39of Wayne
37:40but that she didn't
37:41intend to do it
37:42and she didn't intend
37:43to cause him
37:44serious harm.
37:45It's an important
37:47legal distinction
37:48murder means life
37:51manslaughter
37:52can result
37:53in much less
37:53prison time.
37:54She just wanted
37:55to get away with it
37:56she knew
37:57she'd have gone guilty
37:58she'd have got longer.
38:02I thought
38:03Delia's plea
38:04of not guilty
38:05was absolutely
38:06ridiculous.
38:08She stabbed him
38:09and that
38:10so where can she
38:11plead not guilty?
38:17And in fact
38:18what she said
38:19was that she was
38:19defending herself
38:20because at some stage
38:22Wayne had put a knife
38:24towards her back
38:26and so she grabbed
38:27this large kitchen knife
38:28the largest knife
38:29in the block
38:30and plunged it
38:31into Wayne's chest
38:34and the police
38:35have to try
38:36and disprove that
38:37if they can.
38:38It's very difficult
38:40when you've got
38:40one person's word
38:42against another
38:42or when your victim
38:44is deceased
38:44and can't speak
38:45for themselves
38:46and so you do
38:47your best to try
38:48and get corroborative
38:49evidence
38:49and the police
38:51would be relying
38:51on bad character
38:53evidence
38:53where Cordelia
38:54had this violent
38:55outburst on Wayne
38:56only a month
38:57before the murder
38:59but obviously
39:00what Cordelia
39:01is also painting
39:01a picture of
39:02is that Wayne
39:02was violent
39:03and that she was
39:04merely defending
39:05herself
39:06and so it's quite
39:07tricky for juries
39:08sometimes to try
39:09and work their way
39:10through that information
39:11and decide effectively
39:12who's telling the truth
39:13and who's not.
39:15Wayne's family
39:16would be chief witnesses
39:17in her trial.
39:19Well when I was
39:20giving my evidence
39:20understanding
39:21I seen Cordelia
39:22in the dark
39:23she was actually
39:24smiling at me
39:24as if it was
39:25something to laugh
39:26about.
39:28She's got an evil
39:29streak in her
39:30definitely.
39:32The jury
39:33is given
39:34an outline
39:34of events
39:35they hear about
39:37the non-molestation
39:38orders issued
39:39against Farrell
39:40even when she
39:41done them
39:42last two fingers
39:42to him
39:43she was still
39:44under the non-molestation
39:45so she could have
39:46gone to her
39:46on remand
39:47and done that.
39:54The moment arrives
39:56will it be murder
39:58or manslaughter?
40:02Cordelia Farrell
40:03is convicted
40:03of manslaughter
40:04and sentenced
40:05to ten years
40:07for the killing
40:08of Wayne Coventry.
40:09The judge instructed
40:11that she serve
40:12a minimum
40:12of seven and a half years.
40:15Farrell was also
40:16given an 18-month
40:18sentence
40:18for aggravated
40:20bodily harm
40:20to run concurrently.
40:23I think that
40:25the manslaughter
40:25verdict was a reflection
40:27of the fact
40:28that this was
40:29a voluntary
40:30relationship
40:31that the two
40:31were part of
40:32and that there
40:34were escalating
40:36episodes
40:36of violence
40:38that continued
40:39over a period
40:40of time.
40:41Therefore,
40:42to some extent,
40:43the manslaughter
40:44emerged out
40:46of that
40:46destructive
40:48relationship.
40:52It wasn't
40:53enough.
40:54Nowhere near
40:55enough.
40:56I expected
40:57it to get
40:58at least
40:59round about
40:59the 20-year mark.
41:01Ten years
41:02was nothing.
41:04I couldn't
41:05understand it.
41:07I don't know
41:07how someone
41:08can get away
41:08with that.
41:10That just
41:10shows me
41:11that it's
41:12a dangerous
41:12person you're
41:13talking about.
41:14And I think
41:15she should have
41:15got what she
41:16deserved,
41:16really,
41:16instead of
41:17just the 10
41:17years that she
41:18got.
41:19My brother's
41:20lost his life
41:21and I'm never
41:21going to see
41:21him again,
41:22but yet she
41:23gets to walk
41:23free in seven
41:24and a half years.
41:27It's wrong.
41:29For the
41:30family,
41:31the trial
41:32could have
41:32turned out
41:33worse.
41:34A plea
41:34of self-defense
41:35might have
41:36seen Cordelia
41:37walk free.
41:38But that
41:39claim was
41:40something the
41:41jury seems
41:42to have
41:42rejected.
41:44The jury
41:45dismissed
41:46any possibility
41:47that Cordelia
41:48was defending
41:49herself.
41:49And I think
41:50what kind
41:51of helped
41:52them come
41:52to that
41:53conclusion
41:53was that
41:54Cordelia
41:55didn't hang
41:56around.
41:56This wasn't
41:57a reaction
41:58whereby,
41:59oh no
41:59word,
41:59what have
41:59I done?
42:00I need
42:00to get
42:01Wayne some
42:01help.
42:02She plunged
42:03the knife
42:03into him,
42:04she removed
42:04it,
42:05and then
42:05she ran
42:06away.
42:07The
42:08sentencing
42:08decision
42:09is
42:10devastating
42:10for Wayne's
42:11family as
42:12they try
42:13to come
42:13to terms
42:14with their
42:14loss.
42:16This
42:16has put
42:17all of
42:17our
42:17family apart.
42:19It's
42:19totally
42:19destroyed,
42:20me,
42:20my
42:20partner,
42:21and my
42:21son,
42:21after what
42:22we went
42:23through.
42:23We're
42:24all going
42:25through really
42:25bad mental
42:26health.
42:26It's
42:26just
42:26hard.
42:29And
42:29especially
42:30for an
42:3011-year-old
42:31boy as
42:31well,
42:32because he
42:33stood
42:33right by
42:33the side
42:34of her
42:34when she
42:34put the
42:34knife
42:35in my
42:35brother.
42:38I'm
42:38still
42:38upset
42:39over it.
42:40I mean,
42:42the pictures
42:42that I've
42:43got,
42:44they're all
42:44laid out
42:45on a
42:45table,
42:46which is
42:46just
42:47Wayne.
42:49It's
42:49all the
42:50pictures
42:50and different
42:52bits and
42:52pieces.
42:54They're all
42:54Wayne's.
42:55this table
42:56is right
42:57by the
42:57side of
42:58my
42:58chair.
43:00So I
43:01can see
43:02him every
43:02minute of
43:03the day.
43:06For
43:06Sean,
43:07spending time
43:08in the
43:08home where
43:09his brother
43:09lived brings
43:10a little
43:11consolation.
43:13It's the
43:13last time
43:14I was
43:14with him,
43:15I was
43:15here,
43:16so looking
43:18to boy
43:18it hopefully
43:19eventually.
43:20Yeah.
43:21But I've got
43:22his own little
43:22garden around
43:23the side of
43:23the house,
43:24and then
43:24obviously he
43:25helped me
43:25build that
43:25gate where
43:26his plaque's
43:26on the
43:27gate.
43:36for the
43:36men of
43:37the
43:37Coventry
43:37family,
43:38their
43:39mission is
43:40clear,
43:40to urge
43:42other men
43:42to break
43:43the silence
43:44and report
43:45abuse,
43:46even when
43:47the abuser
43:48is a
43:49woman.
43:51So if
43:52anybody's
43:52out there
43:52going through
43:53the same
43:53thing,
43:54please get
43:54help or
43:54please listen
43:55to your
43:55family members
43:56or people
43:57that can
43:57see what's
43:58happening
43:58because they
43:59know a lot
43:59more than
44:00what you
44:00do.
44:01I know
44:01it's hard
44:01but you
44:02need to
44:02try and
44:02listen.
44:04I wish
44:04my brother
44:05had a
44:05done
44:05but he
44:06wouldn't
44:06be where
44:06he is
44:07now.
44:09Just
44:10miss him.
44:12And I
44:13know for a
44:13fact if
44:13he'd have
44:14survived
44:14this he
44:14probably
44:15still
44:15would have
44:15dropped
44:15the
44:16charges
44:17because
44:17that's
44:17the sort
44:18of
44:18person
44:18he was.
44:19He
44:19loved
44:19it a bit
44:20and no
44:21more
44:21could say
44:21nothing
44:21different.
44:24When
44:25he found
44:25the right
44:25person he
44:26wanted to
44:26be with
44:27them all
44:27the time.
44:28He was
44:28that sort
44:29of person.
44:29He weren't
44:30one for
44:30cheating or
44:31going behind
44:31the backs
44:32or nothing.
44:33He was good.
44:35He just
44:36loved her
44:36too much.
44:37He knew
44:38that it
44:39weren't
44:39right but
44:39he just
44:41couldn't
44:41turn his
44:42head.
44:42couldn't
44:43get away
44:43from it.
44:52Because he
44:52was besotted
44:53with her he
44:54couldn't
44:54act staying
44:55by himself.
44:56He had to
44:57have somebody
44:58there and
44:59deal you
45:00happened to
45:00be the one
45:00he was
45:01with at
45:02the time.
45:04Wayne's
45:04smile was
45:05just
45:05contagious.
45:11Just like
45:12a Cheshire
45:12cat.
45:14Always
45:14grinning.
45:15No matter
45:15what happened.
45:16Whether he was
45:17down or what
45:17he always had
45:18that smile.
45:19Always.
45:20Everyone used
45:21to go on about
45:21it was contagious.
45:24No matter
45:25what was going
45:25on he always
45:27had it.
45:30I'm missing
45:31my love.
45:57I'm missing
45:58her.
45:58I'm missing
46:20my love.
46:20I'm missing
46:20I'm missing
46:20her.
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