Every third day, in our #EveryThreeDays campaign, I write about a woman killed by a man. Previously in this campaign, which started on the 2nd of May 2021, I have remembered 95 women, the last being Andrea Lewis, 51, from South Wales.
Today we remember India Chipchase, 20, murdered by Edward Tenniswood.
An “oddball” loner has been jailed for the rape and murder of a woman he promised to “get home safe” after they met outside a nightclub. India Chipchase, 20, was found dead at a house in Northampton on 31 January 2015.
Edward Tenniswood, 52, claimed the pair had consensual sex and he had throttled Miss Chipchase as a result of his “over-eagerness” in bed. He will serve at least 30 years for the murder and was sentenced to 12 years for the rape, to run concurrently.
Judge Mr Justice Saunders described it as “a crime of utter depravity”, adding that Miss Chipchase “was vulnerable and he took advantage of her vulnerability”.
A jury at Birmingham Crown Court took under two hours to find him guilty.
During a two-week trial, the court heard Miss Chipchase was drunk when she got into a taxi with Tenniswood outside NB’s nightclub in Northampton. The killer told jurors his victim had placed his hands on her neck during “loving” sex at his house.
He said he inadvertently throttled her through “inexperience and incompetence”. The prosecution said he raped his victim with her clothes on and then “squeezed the life” out of her. He “cuddled up” to her lifeless body, later found under plastic sheeting on a mattress, before leaving the house for a kebab.
He then sat and drank in a hotel bar for 22 hours until police arrested him after tracking Miss Chipchase’s phone to his house.
Edward Tenniswood gave his evidence to the jury as if he were on stage. He appeared to enjoy the audience – so much so that a police officer commented to me that he “was getting off on it all”. It was as if he was reliving everything and rewriting history.
The judge repeatedly told him to keep his sentences short but he refused, going into tasteless and inappropriate detail.
He talked of bringing a dummy into court to illustrate a point and said he drank so much the day he met India his body contained “more wine than blood”. At one point, the judge asked jurors to leave the courtroom because India’s relatives were visibly upset by Tenniswood’s graphic testimony.
India Chipchase
#EveryThreeDays
