Mark Chilman set his victim’s car on fire in a bid to make it look like suicide, the court hears.
image sourceWest Mercia Police
An “obsessed” man has been jailed for at least 22 years for murdering his former long-term girlfriend’s new partner, leaving him in a burning car.
Mark Chilman, 52, killed Neil Parkinson in Cotheridge, Worcestershire, on 12 December.
A trial at Worcester Crown Court heard he lay in wait for his victim, hit him and set his car alight to try and make it look like suicide.
Judge James Burbidge QC said Chilman had treated his ex as his “property”.
The judge said Chilman had immediately “harboured a desire to do Mr Parkinson harm,” after discovering Julie Adcock had moved on with her life.
image sourceFamily handout
The court heard Chilman prepared by “scoping” his ex partner’s farm, stealing two petrol jerry cans, buying disposable mobile phones and leaving his own phone elsewhere, while asking a friend to give him a false alibi.
He then waited for Mr Parkinson, 66, to drive away from the farm in Broadwas, to care for his 94-year-old mother, who had dementia.
When the victim got out to lock the gate, Chilman attacked him, hitting him so hard with a weapon, possibly a hammer, he fractured the base of his skull and left him unconscious.
The trial heard he then drove Mr Parkinson to a lay-by, poured petrol over him and the vehicle, and set it alight.
Judge Burbidge said, as the fire took hold, Chilman sent a long text message “in despicable and defamatory terms” to try and suggest it was Mr Parkinson attempting to take his own life.
The death had left Mr Parkinson’s family and his ex-partner Ms Adcock “shattered and grieving”, the judge added.
In a statement, Mr Parkinson’s family described Chilman as an “evil, calculated individual”.
“Neil was a loving, caring, happy person who enjoyed life to the full,” they said. “As a family it’s been a very difficult eight months and our lives have been changed forever.
“Neil will be sorely missed by all his family and the memories of him as a loving father, grandfather, brother and son and will be remembered dearly for all the happy times.”
Jurors heard Chilman, from Pencombe in Herefordshire, told police “whatever, he is out of the way now” when detectives suggested to him the blaze looked suspicious.
The judge accepted the death of the defendant’s father some years before hit him hard and the loss of his relationship with Ms Adcock sent his world “crashing down”.
But he said his love and affection became “misplaced” and he “could not bear for her to be happy with anyone else”.
It emerged during the hearing Chilman had been attempting correspondence with Ms Adcock from his jail cell.
Det Ch Insp Dean Jones, from West Mercia Police, welcomed Chilman’s “significant sentence”, describing the murder as “brutal” and “senseless”.
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