A fashion buyer was murdered by her new flatmate when she refused to sleep with him – just days after moving into the home she found on Gumtree.
Lab assistant Gary Stevenson, 27, confessed to police that he “lost control” and stabbed Katy Rourke, 25, to death after she rejected him. Chillingly, he told officers: “If it wasn’t her, it would be someone else,” a court heard. The pair had s_ex after drinking vodka together but when Rourke refused to do so again, he stabbed her three times.
Prosecutors described the victim as a young woman “with every expectation of a bright future ahead of her”, and said her family had been devastated by her murder in December. Stevenson admitted the crime after fleeing the scene and attempting to take his own life. He later told police he needed to face up to what he had done and “give Katy’s family justice”.
Relatives wept as Glasgow’s High Court heard Rourke had moved into the flat in the city’s Govan area on December 15. She had found it via classifieds website Gumtree. Main tenant Stevenson had drunk a half-bottle of fortified wine before sharing a bottle of vodka with his new flatmate on the night of December 29.
He told officers ‘one thing led to another’ and they had s_ex in her bedroom but when he asked if she wanted to have s_ex again she refused, saying that she had work in the morning, the court heard.
Her refusal enraged Stevenson, who started punching her and putting his hands round her throat before stabbing her three times. One knife wound penetrated her heart and a lung causing massive blood loss and “almost instantaneous death”.
Stevenson later told investigators: “I lost control. I didn’t think about the consequence of my actions. Once it started it just took off. She started kicking and stuff so I started punching her in the face. I started to hit her and I didn’t stop. I just kept goin’ an’ goin’ and goin”.
‘I tried to stop her moving but then she started shouting for help and stuff. I went into the kitchen to get a knife. I stabbed her. I think it was three times.’
The court heard he later left the flat intending to take his own life and wrote a note saying he wanted to be cremated. After barricading the front door, Stevenson escaped via a rear window and shinned down a drainpipe, leaving Rourke’s n_aked body alone on her bed.
Friends became worried when she failed to turn up for work in Glasgow. Three of them visited her flat on December 30 and phoned police after seeing her car outside and a light on.
After forcing the door, officers found Rourke’s body with two slash wounds and a smaller puncture wound to her lower back. A kitchen knife was on the bed beside the former cruise ship worker’s body. Stevenson meanwhile, bought a knife, alcohol and painkillers and fled to North Berwick, East Lothian.
He later dialled 999 saying he had slashed his wrists and was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where police received information he was suspected of murdering Rourke.
As he was driven back to Glasgow, he told police: “If it wasn’t her, it would be someone else. I just want to tell the truth for the sake of the family.
“I need to give Katy’s family a chance to seek justice. I need to own up to it.”
He added: “I’ve never been in trouble for violence. But when I did lose control, it just felt like there was nothing to stop me. There were no moral boundaries left in my life.”
Stevenson admitted murdering Rourke, originally of Broughty Ferry near Dundee.
Prosecutor Bruce Erroch asked Judge Lady Rae to place Stevenson on the S_ex Offenders’ register. The judge deferred sentence until next month.
Detective Inspector Margaret-Ann May said the defendant’s guilty plea had spared Rourke’s family the added trauma of a trial.
She said: “What they have endured over the last five months is incomprehensible and I must thank them for their strength and courage during this very difficult time.”
Source : DailyMail