A woman who stabbed an army veteran to death for letting her dog out before boasting she’d been a ‘bad girl’ on TikTok has been jailed.
Winter Swan-Miller stabbed 62-year-old Stuart Crocker 27 times and strangled him with a handbag strap because he let her therapy pet, Oblivion, escape.
After murdering the grandfather, the 37-year-old took to TikTok to say ‘taking my dog from me, the only thing in the entire world that I’ve got’.
The dog-sitter had ‘malign intent’ when attacking Mr Crocker, who suffered PTSD from his time in the Army.
Judge Angela Morris said: ‘If fame and notoriety was your goal then by killing Stuart Crocker in the appalling manner you did, you succeeded in achieving it for all the wrong reasons.’
Nicola Shannon KC told Winchester Crown Court said Mr Crocker was found dead by paramedics at his home address in Andover on June 28 last year.
His body was found lying under a white blanket with the TV playing and a switched on fan placed behind his head which was used to keep his body cool.
Police believed Mr Crocker was stabbed some five days before and his body was ‘surrounded by notes’ which had been written by Swan-Miller.
One note read: ‘Take my f*cking dog you whor*. This is why I’ve done this haha.
‘How does his death feel haha. You thought I would let you get away with taking me for a f*cking mug. Taking my dog, are you real.’
The jurors were also shown a number of TikToks, organised into parts, which were posted on June 23.
In one video, titled ‘Part Two’, Swan-Miller can be heard saying: ‘Taking my dog from me, the only thing in the entire world that I’ve got.
‘I did do what I did and I did it because I had no choice. They took away the only thing in my life that I have got, and that’s my dog Oblivion.’
The prosecutor said Swan-Miller hoped for ‘some degree of fame and notoriety for what she had done’.
After going on the run to Birmingham, the dog-sitter was eventually arrested on June 30 and Swan-Miller remained in custody ever since.
Joseph Kingswell, Mr Crocker’s son, who said his dad suffered PTSD from serving in the Army during the Northern Ireland troubles.
‘The day you walked into my father’s life was the day you brought away whatever sanctity and innocence was left in [his] mind,’ he said.
‘You came into his life under a false pretence and left with your hands bloody, with the blood of my father.’
The son described Swan-Miller as a ‘malevolent entity’ and said his children are ‘no longer able to feel the warmth of [their grandfathers] love’.
He added: ‘My family has been splintered. I wasn’t even able to say goodbye to him.’
Yesterday, after a 12 week trial, a jury unanimously found Swan-Miller guilty of murder.
At her sentencing today, Ms Shannon KC said Swan-Miller had an ‘intended desire for revenge’ regarding ‘the treatment of her dog’.
The prosecutor added: ‘Significantly, there has been no indication of remorse or acceptance of responsibility after the killing and indeed, multiple instances where Ms Swan Miller seems to find it amusing.
‘The behaviour toward Mr Crocker was controlling and coercive. This is indicatory of Ms Swan Miller’s culpability in the sense that she had a long-term desire to harm.
‘This was not something that came to her in the spur of the moment. There was a malign intent towards Mr Crocker.’
The prosecutor said there was a ‘deprivation of dignity’ in the way in which Mr Crocker was killed and said Swan-Miller intended to ‘scare, harm and humiliate’ him.
Mitigating on behalf Swan-Miller, Gurdeep Garcha KC said: ‘She has listened to the victim impact statements being read to thecourtand she has been able to hear the impact of Mr Crocker’s death on his loved ones.
‘She has heard the sentence expressed and will have to come to terms with what she has done.’
Sentencing Swan-Miller, The Recorder of Winchester Judge Morris said the relationship was ‘more of a convenience to you than anything born out of coercion from him’.
‘If there was any level of control and coercion, that came much more from you to hum than the other way around,’ she added.
On the Pomeranian, the judge said: ‘You had a fixation on Stuart Crocker being responsible for allowing your dog escape his flat.
‘Your attack on him at an element of revenge in it.’
On the attack, she said: “It was orchestrated in a forceful and aggressive way against a defenceless man.”
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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