Ex-doorman murdered estranged wife after stalking and threats, court hears

A former doorman murdered his estranged wife after a six-month campaign of stalking and harassment when he refused to accept their relationship was over, a court heard.

Paul Antony Butler, 53, stabbed university lecturer Claire Chick, 48, in a frenzied attack outside her home in Plymouth in January this year.

Plymouth Crown Court heard the mother-of-two’s murder was the culmination of a months of harassment, stalking and violence at the hands of Butler.

Jo Martin KC, prosecuting, said Ms Chick had made six statements to the police about the defendant’s conduct and he had been arrested three times for assault, harassment and stalking.

Despite being on bail and banned from going near her, 6ft 5in Butler continued to stalk his 5ft 2in wife and even put a tracking device on her car, Ms Martin said.

When he learned she had formed a new relationship, he went to her flat wearing a camouflaged hooded top and waited for her to come out of the building.

He then attacked her in the street, stabbing her more than 20 times with a large kitchen knife he had bought hours earlier from a supermarket.

A passing motorist described Butler as “really going for it,” Ms Martin said.

Butler then fled the scene but not before chasing Ms Chick’s new partner, Paul Maxwell, who had returned from a regular evening run and witnessed the murderous assault, shouting at him: “I’ll f***ing do you too.”

Ms Chick was taken to Derriford Hospital but declared dead an hour after the attack.

The court heard they became neighbours in 2021 after Ms Chick moved into the street following the end of her first marriage.

By the following summer they were a couple, and they married in June 2024.

“Prior to the wedding she expressed some doubts, and the honeymoon was the end of the relationship,” Ms Martin said.

“They had a huge argument. She told friends she regretted getting married and everything was about him.

“On August 23 she told him she wanted to live alone. He made it clear he would make her change her mind.

“He would tell her he loved her, make threats of violence and threaten suicide. He also expressed feelings of jealousy and thought she was seeing someone.

“He told her he was seeing other people in order to provoke jealousy.”

With his escalating behaviour, Ms Chick contacted the police – telling officers in her final statement the day before she was killed: “I only feel that Butler will kill me if further action is not taken. I am in fear of leaving my house.”

Ms Martin said: “After the relationship was over there was constant texting, the tracking of her car, placing the restriction on the sale of her house, threatening suicide.

“She felt that he had made her life hell. She did repeatedly tell him to leave her alone and she felt violated by him.

“Then on the day of her murder, going to her workplace to watch her. She believed he would murder her.”

At a previous hearing, Butler, of Stangray Avenue, Plymouth, pleaded guilty to murder and possession of a bladed article.

He will be sentenced this afternoon.