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'Obsessed' university worker who knifed boss to death jailed for life
A university worker who stabbed his boss 15 times and scrawled ‘bully’ across her forehead has been jailed for at least 28 years after being convicted of her murder.
David Browning was given a life sentence after attacking Jillian Howell with a knife on the floor of her lounge, stabbing her repeatedly in the chest, neck and abdomen, before writing on her face in black marker pen.
The trial heard that Ms Howell spurned the advances of Browning, who was her deputy in the University of Brighton payroll department. He was described as “deeply self-centred, selfish, with a vindictive streak” in court.
The killer claimed that he and Ms Howell clashed at work but then became friends, and he decided he had to kill her after battling depression following the death of his father.
He later attempted to implicate her close friend Sean McDonald in the crime.
Samaritans volunteer Ms Howell, who had lost both her parents, told friends she wanted to help him and try to cheer him up by inviting him over to dinner at her Brighton home.
Browning, 52, planned the killing for months after forming an “intense attachment” to her and fearing she would reject him, Prosecutor Alan Gardner said.
In the months before her death, he applied for a firearms licence, bought a shotgun and knife, hired a van, deleted swathes of messages and data on his phone and took a change of clothes to the crime scene.
Before he committed the crime Browning became “possessive, controlling and jealous”, buying the 46-year-old gifts, flowers and wine – even bringing back presents for her from a holiday with his family.
Browning insisted he had “daily” suicidal thoughts and was so depressed that at times he did not know what he was thinking, but that he had decided he “must” kill her two weeks before she died.
Browning’s wife Deborah, who blew a kiss to him after giving evidence in court, described him as not a “particularly emotional person” who was never aggressive and had “lost his spark”, but never mentioned feeling suicidal.
She said they ate dinner together as a family hours before he sat down to the meal with Ms Howell at her home, and she had not known where he was going that night.
Members of the jury were in tears as Browning described the moment a “whoosh” came over him after he shared a curry with Ms Howell, and he stabbed her in the back while she bent down to tie a shoelace.
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He told the court she grabbed the knife and screamed “You b******” and he responded by saying: “I’m sorry Jill, this is what mental health does to you.”
He stayed in the house for “several hours” on October 25 and into the early hours of the next morning, during which time he posted a cartoon on Facebook with the slogan “Stand up to bullies, then kill them” – a post “liked” by two people.
At around 6am he tried to hand himself in but found a police station closed, so he dialled 999 to say he was standing outside in the street with a knife and had attempted suicide.
When he was approached by officers, he was also found to have a gun but was “calm, coherent and collected”.
When officers asked what happened, he said: “In a nutshell, I have killed my boss.”
The father, who has a 21-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter, admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility and possession of a knife in a public place, but this was rejected by the prosecution.
Browning will be sentenced to life imprisonment on Thursday and was warned by Judge Christine Laing he will face a minimum of at least 25 years.
