- Stephen Hotson tried to blow up marital home when body of murdered wife was discovered days later by her brother
- Hotson admitted killing his wife and claimed he was depressed and suffering from an ‘abnormality of mind’
By
Nadia Gilani
Last updated at 5:46 PM on 9th January 2012
Murdered: Julia Tottle, pictured, died from injuries after being beaten with a vacuum cleaner
A husband who battered his wife to death in a ‘fit of rage’ when she told him their marriage was over was today jailed for life.
Stephen Hotson, 45, hit his wife Julia Tottle, 51, repeatedly around the head with a vacuum cleaner pipe when she asked him to leave their marital home in Kewstoke, North Somerset.
When Ms Tottle’s blood-stained body was discovered by her brother days later Hotson tried to blow up their marital home.
After being thwarted by his brother-in-law, Hotson then tried to kill himself for a second time by jumping from a first-floor window.
A post-mortem examination found that Ms Tottle, who worked at a veterinary surgery in Weston-super-Mare, had suffered nearly 60 injuries.
Hotson denied murder but admitted killing his wife, who was known as Julie, claiming he was depressed and suffering from an ‘abnormality of mind’.
However, a jury at Bristol Crown Court took just four hours to reject Hotson’s claims and find him guilty of murder by a majority of 11 to one.
Forensic officers at the scene in Kewstoke, Weston-Super-Mare where Julie Tottle’s body was found in July last year
The burly defendant stood expressionless as the jury foreman returned the guilty verdict.
The packed public gallery then watched as Judge Neil Ford QC, the Recorder of Bristol, imposed a mandatory life sentence and fixed a minimum term of 14 years’ imprisonment.
‘You acted in a rage as a result of your wife telling you there was no future in your relationship and that you should leave immediately,’ the judge told the defendant.
‘Julie Tottle had stood by you even when your behaviour towards her became abusive.
Forensic teams and police at the scene in July. A post mortem examination found that Ms Tottle had died from severe head injuries, included a fractured skull
‘Finally it is clear she was ground down by your behaviour and couldn’t take any more.
‘You killed her in a brutal and sustained attack during which she was trying to fend off the blows you were inflicting with a metal tube.’
Judge Ford said Ms Tottle’s death had been ‘totally devastating’ upon her family and particularly her elderly mother Angela, whose final years have been ‘irretrievably blighted.’
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Poor woman. If she knew he was so violent why tell him to leave? Anyone reading this in a similar situation please contact Refuge and work with them to safely leave first yourself and get yourself somewhere safe – then get solicitors to write to him to tell him the marriage is over – keep yourself safe at all times.
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It’s frightening how so many men cannot cope with rejection. It seems he was abusive to her during the relationship as well judging by how violently he killed her. Do men think they can just go on and on being abusive and that’s it? She just has to accept that her life will be like this forever?? Nine times out of ten there is a damn good reason when a wife wants her husband out of the house for good. RIP Julie x He can go to hell.
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Since when was a life sentence 14 years? I really don’t understand the sentencing laws nowadays.
– Jay, Cambs., UK, 09/1/2012 20:11
No, you don’t understand. 14 years is the minimum term he must serve, but if he is still a danger to the public he will not be released. He will also be on license for the rest of his life once released, so can be recalled to prison at any time.
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People always heckle, “Only 14 years!”, but after he has served out his sentence 14 years is a very long time to be in. He will be a changed man.
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14 years for life? Has the world gone mad? So in other words you can dispose of someone and then just get a slap on the wrist, get out and get on with your life whereas the other person is gone well and truly. Great justice that is. He might as well have got off scot free. He virtually did.
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Since when was a life sentence 14 years? I really don’t understand the sentencing laws nowadays.
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14 years? For torturing his wife to death by beating, for robbing this poor lady of her life, for devastating her family forever, and he gets 14 years? Am I missing something here?
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