The 51-year-old from Wentworth View, Wombwell, was sentenced to life
imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to murdering Sally Jane Lee on the
day he was due to stand trial.

For the first time details of the horrific death she suffered at his
hands were made public at Sheffield Crown Court.

Nicholas Campbell QC, prosecuting, said Lee murdered his estranged wife
just five weeks after assaulting her in another fit of violence at
their marital home on Locke Street, Barnsley.

The first attack was described by one doctor as the worse case of
domestic violence she had dealt with in 12 years.

In the first incident Lee tried to strangle the mum-of-two - an
accusation he denied.

But he accepted inflicting her injuries and today admitted causing her
actual bodily harm.

The court heard Lee, who was on bail for the previous attack at the
time of the murder, tracked his wife down to a house she was cleaning
on Little Westfields, Royston, and struck as she was getting into her
car.

Her terrified screams were heard by others and Lee was seen
frogmarching her away from the car, striking her with a baseball bat
before stabbing her to death in the neck and back.

Annette Eaden, who was pushing her grandson in his pram at the time of
the murder, intervened and urged the killer to stop.

Lee told her he had just caught his wife in bed with another man, an
allegation which later turned out to be untrue.

He threatened to attack Annette Eaden with a knife when he saw her
holding a mobile phone.

Mr Campbell QC said: "Jane Lee was screaming, pleading - using the
words 'Please don't do this Bob'.

Then she saw Lee push his wife up against a garage "as if he was
punching her".

He added: "Clearly the defendant was stabbing Jane Lee and it was then
Mrs Eaden saw her drop to the ground bleeding."

Lee jumped into his wife's car and sped away, going on the run to
Cleethorpes for three days where he spent his time drinking in pubs.

Peter Kelson QC mitigating said he could offer no justification or
excuses for the frenzied attack, which he described as "brutal and
dreadful".

"The assault was sadly a further episode in what was something of a
turbulent marriage," he said.

He said Lee had gone to Royston to talk to his wife but had not planned
to murder her.

"It appears the deceased had decided there would be no more, and on
seeing the defendant she screamed and wanted to be away from him - he
panicked."

"He bears absolute sorrow for what he did."

The Recorder of Sheffield Judge Alan Goldsack QC said Lee had intended
to kill at the time of the murder but could not rule the killing had
been premeditated.

"No sentence can undo the consequences of the offence to the victim's
family, who have been devastated by what you did," he said.

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