Serial domestic abuser who murdered wife was caught after Alexa device recorded attack

A serial domestic abuser has been jailed for life for murdering his wife after an Alexa device made voice recordings during the course of the attack.

Daniel White, 36, kicked open Angie White’s locked bedroom door and strangled her before cutting her throat with a Stanley knife on Oct 22 last year.

The couple had an Amazon Alexa device, which can control household electrical items when activated by a voice prompt.

Detectives discovered voice commands made by White and his wife at the time of the murder had been stored in the Cloud, Swansea Crown Court heard.

William Hughes KC, prosecuting, said: “As a consequence, police have been able to discover that at 3.03am Angie in her bedroom said, ‘Alexa, volume three’.

“At 3.16am Daniel White’s voice can be heard saying, ‘Alexa stop’.

‘Alexa, turn off the TV’

“He then goes back downstairs into the living room and says, ‘Turn on - Alexa’ but what can also be heard is that he is out of breath and these appear to be the moments when, the Crown say, he has gone to get the knife.

“He then returns to the bedroom at 3.18am when he says, ‘Alexa, turn on the electric light’, and at 3.19am he says, ‘Alexa, turn off the TV’.

“So, the Crown’s reasonable interpretation is after 3.03am and before 3.16am Daniel White had burst through the door and initially strangled Angie, then went downstairs to get the knife, and thereafter cut her throat.”

The court heard they had begun arguing on WhatsApp and the last message between the pair was exchanged at 3.11am.

White then fled the house in Swansea in his wife’s car and hours later phoned police to confess to murder.

Officers went to their home in Idris Terrace, Plasmarl, and discovered the front door unlocked and the body of Mrs White, 45, in her bedroom.

Swansea Crown Court heard that White, a labourer, had a long history of domestic violence, including against Mrs White.

At the time of the murder, he was on licence from prison after receiving a 10-year extended sentence for rape and assault.

Fearful of her husband, Mrs White had recently installed a mortice lock on her bedroom door, which White kicked in after an argument started on WhatsApp.

Neighbours heard banging, shouting and screaming at about 3am on Oct 22 last year before hearing a front door and a car drive away.

Shortly before 6am, White called police, telling a call handler: “She’s in the house, she’s dead. I’ve strangled her and cut her throat. She’s dead.

“We argued and she locked the door and said she wanted me out.

“All I wanted to do was take my stuff and leave. I just shut her up, I strangled her, I ran downstairs, and I cut her throat to make sure she was dead.”

Refused to attend court for sentencing

A pathologist found Mrs White had died from knife wounds to her neck but there was also evidence she had been strangled.

White previously admitted murder but refused to attend court for sentencing.

Imposing a life sentence with a minimum term of 20 years and 10 months, Judge Paul Thomas KC branded White a coward.

“He does not have the courage to face the family and friends of the woman whose life he so brutally ended,” he said.

It comes after a burglar was “spooked” by one of the devices alerting homeowners to a break-in.

Alexas can be programmed to “listen” for sounds that could indicate an intruder, like breaking glass or footsteps.

Paul Freeman fled the home in  Chatham, in Kent, but was caught on a Ring doorbell camera and later jailed.