A murderer calmly confessed to police he had stabbed his girlfriend in a frenzy and then left her dying in a pool of blood.

Paul John Lewis attacked his girlfriend, mum-of-two Terrie-Ann Jones, and she suffered 26 separate "sharp force injuries" in the attack at her home in Neath, south Wales.

Lewis, 56, had stabbed her 13 times in the neck and twice in the chest – one of which pierced her heart "through and through", reports WalesOnline .

After the brutal attack Lewis cleaned the weapon, stole money from his partner's purse as she lay dying, and went to the pub where bought a round of drinks for his friends.

Later that evening the 56-year-old went to his mother's house in Port Talbot then walked to the nearby Sandfields police station.

After Lewis "brutally murdered" Terrie-Ann, he then took money from her purse and went to the pub in "good spirits.

Initially he could get no answer to his knocking at the station and he rang 999.

In a matter-of-fact tone of voice he calmly told the call handler on the other end of the line: "I've killed somebody... my girlfriend."

He continued: "She went to stab me, I stabbed her. I've come to admit it."

After a further conversation where he confirms Miss Jones is dead, a policeman arrives at the door of the station and Lewis is taken inside to be questioned.

In the subsequent interview, which was recorded on the officer's bodycam, Lewis said: "I had to go and tell my mother what I done... I thought that was the decent thing to do."

Speaking calmly he told the officer: "I stabbed her in the neck."

When asked where his victim is he added: "She is laying in a pool of blood like."

He went on to say "I'm sorry" before admitting: "I don't know how many times I stabbed her."

He told the officer: "It's just one of those things my head went and that's it like."

John Lewis, 55, launched a horror attack on girlfriend Terrie-Ann

Lewis denied murdering 33-year-old Miss Jones, claiming he was acting in self-defence.

But a jury of seven women and five men took 90 minutes to unanimously convict him after an eight-day trial at Swansea Crown Court.

Lewis and Miss Jones had been in a relationship for around eight months before he killed her.

The court heard he was an abusive and controlling partner, and friends of Miss Jones, as well as colleagues from Neath's Castle Hotel where she worked as a barmaid, told how they would see her with bruises and other signs of having been assaulted.

On one occasion Lewis pinned her against a wall and throttled her until she turned blue in the face.

Lewis made a chilling confession to police

He would also bombard his partner with calls, texts and WhatsApp messages demanding to know where she was at all times. Many of the messages were threatening and abusive, and during one phone call he threatened to kill her and her children.

After handing himself in to Sandfields police station, he told police he had been the one who was attacked by Miss Jones, and he had defended himself. He claimed he could not remember much about the events in Cimla, and had been in a daze.

But is was all a lie – he had launched what the judge called a "determined, brutal and sustained" attack on Miss Jones.

The court heard that on January 3 this year, after another of what were frequent rows between the pair, he stole her mobile phone. On the phone he found text messages about a new man in Miss Jones' life and about her intention to end the relationship with the defendant.

Lewis claimed that his girlfriend had tried to stab him

He spent the following day "stewing" on the content on the messages and then on January 5 went to confront her.

On the fateful morning an "aggrieved" Lewis had a drink at the Ambassador bar in Neath then went to the Schooners pub in Briton Ferry where he drank with friends, telling them his partner had been cheating on him.



Lewis lost count of how many times he stabbed 'Tan'

Lewis then tried to wash the knife in the kitchen sink, stole money from her purse, left the house – locking the front door after him and dropping the key down a nearby drain – and went home to Briton Ferry.

Once home he changed out of his bloodied clothes – putting them in a big bag and then dumping them in a large waste bin on Villiers Road - and then went back to the Schooners pub.

At the bar he bought a round of drinks and paid off a debt he owned to one of his friends.

Police would later find a bank note in his trouser pocket which had Miss Jones' blood on it.

Lewis, of Briton Ferry, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Miss Jone and must serve a minimum of 19 years before he can be considered for parole.

Speaking after he was sent down Miss Jones' family said they hoped the death of their loved one would highlight the issue of domestic abuse as they urged victims not to suffer in silence but to contact police.