Tiny bride who weighed just six stone killed by a 19-stone misfit outside Thorntons factory where she worked

The son of a company director yesterday admitted battering a young wife to death moments after she left work on a woodland path known as the ‘Yellow Brick Road’. 

David Simmonds, the father of a two-year-old boy, pounced on Jia Ashton as she walked her regular 20-minute route home from the headquarters of chocolate-maker Thorntons. 

At 19 stone and 6ft 2in, tattooed Simmonds weighed more than three times as much as his six stone, 4ft 11in victim.

Officers believe that after beating and attempting to strangle the 25-year-old graduate trainee, Simmonds either stamped or jumped on his victim, fatally rupturing her heart.  
No weapon was used in the attack, which police originally suspected had been committed by Mrs Ashton’s husband, Matthew. 


Yesterday Simmonds, 21, whose father runs his own machinery and packaging firm, changed his plea ahead of trial to admit murdering the Warwick University economics graduate.   Read More

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