Jealous murderer Joe Atkinson jailed for life over brutal killing of girlfriend Poppy Devey Waterhouse as she was about to leave him

WARNING: SOME READERS MAY FIND DETAILS OF THIS CASE DISTRESSING

A maths graduate who murdered his girlfriend in a frenzied knife attack in a 'jealous rage' at their flat in Leeds is today starting a life sentence.

Joe Atkinson stabbed Poppy Devey Waterhouse 49 times to the head and body after he turned into a 'Jekyll and Hyde character' as he struggled to cope with the break-up of their relationship.

Atkinson was told he must serve a minimum of 16 years and two months after pleading guilty to her murder in the early hours of December 14 last year.

Emergency services found Miss Devey Waterhouse's body in a pool of blood in the apartment at Saxton Flats, Richmond Hill.

Atkinson attacked his partner of three years as she was a sleep in bed when he came home drunk from a work's Christmas night out in Leeds city centre.

Prosecutor Jason Pitter QC told a packed courtroom how Miss Devey Waterhouse had been subjected to a "harrowing" attack in which she fought to save herself and desperately tried to escape the flat.

The 24-year-old's injuries included 49 knife blows, including 23 separate stab wounds to the head and neck.

Two of the knife blows were delivered with such force that they punctured her skull and there was evidence that her hair had been pulled from her scalp.

The court heard that Miss Devey Waterhouse and Aktinson were in the process of splitting up at the time of the killing.