Michele Kennedy messaged her new partner about a routine by comedian Paul Smith moments before estranged husband Gavin Shaw entered her home “unannounced and uninvited” and killed her
19:00, 02 Apr 2026Updated 19:08, 02 Apr 2026
Michele Kennedy was stabbed to death by her ex-husband Gavin Shaw(Image: Cheshire Police)
A nan sent a final text to her boyfriend 42 seconds before her ex-husband let himself into her house and stabbed her to death. Gavin Shaw entered his former marital home “uninvited and unannounced” and, in the space of the three minutes that he spent inside, knifed his estranged wife Michele Kennedy to death.
It came after his estranged partner had begun seeing a new boyfriend following a “holiday romance” in Turkey, with the tradesman having apparently been motivated by “jealousy and resentment” following the breakdown of their “volatile and toxic” relationship. He had “appeared like he was just having a pint after work” with his son in the hours before he embarked upon the fatal assault.
Having gone out under the guise of taking money out from a cash machine for a takeaway, Shaw instead made his way to the 55-year-old victim’s home and stabbed her in the chest and shoulder. Described as being in a “calm and vacant state” in the aftermath, he later asked police “how many years do you reckon I’ll get?” as he was arrested before remorselessly commenting: “That’s what you get when she’s s***ging someone.”
Liverpool Crown Court heard today, Thursday, that Shaw and Ms Kennedy had previously been married for around 12 years but separated around three months prior to the incident on October 13 last year. This had led to the 62-year-old defendant moving out of their home on Manchester Road in Woolston, Warrington, and going to live with his son Adam two doors down.
Andrew Ford KC, prosecuting, said of the relationship: “Family members and others who had known Ms Kennedy and Mr Shaw well when they were a couple spoke of there being problems. Adam’s partner Hayley said that Gavin Shaw would often come to stay with them temporarily when he and Michele had domestic difficulties.
“Hayley said that the defendant struggled with alcohol. That is an observation of most who knew them. Their relationship was also described by some as toxic. Mr Shaw’s son described a volatile relationship between his father and the deceased and he said, as well as his father’s alcoholism, Ms Kennedy herself could contribute towards the friction that lay between them.
“Michele’s mother Patricia said that alcohol was, as she put it, a permanent issue in the relationship between her daughter and Gavin. She said and recognises that, whilst her daughter could be stubborn and argumentative, the root cause of the problem was the defendant’s drinking. It gave rise to money issues. At times in the relationship, the police were called.”
Both Shaw and Ms Kennedy were said to have holidayed together to the Canary Islands in the spring of 2025 and again later in the year, but these trips had “gone so badly” that they ultimately travelled home on separate flights on both occasions. Mr Ford added of the second vacation: “Shortly afterwards, they separated. As far as the family and Michele Kennedy were aware, this was a permanent split.
“It is important that the court understands that those who knew her well speak variously of her having a fresh outlook and a new lease of life. Mr Shaw’s murder of her was not the act of a man scorned by infidelity. This relationship was over. She had begun a new chapter in her life. Other relationships she had, for example, that with her mother, were undoubtedly improving. She was making decisions of her own, one of them to go on holiday with her mother to Turkey. She did that just before she was killed.”
Michele’s mum Patricia Lawton described her daughter as “feeling differently about life, being in a better place, looking after her appearance and moving on” while they were on holiday between September 19 and 26 2025, during which time she “had a romance” with a man she had met abroad, Gordon Riddick. But Shaw was said to having continued to “pester” his ex via text messages while she was away.
Mr Ford continued: “Mr Riddick describes how he developed strong feelings for Michele Kennedy quite quickly. He said that they were inseparable for the second part of the holiday. He said that she feared Gavin’s reaction if he found out that she had met somebody else.
“After the holiday, Michele Kennedy and Mr Riddick spent the weekend prior to her murder together. On Friday, the 10th of October, he travelled down from Glasgow to Warrington. He collected Michele Kennedy. They spent the weekend together, staying at hotels in Liverpool and in Southport.
“They parted company on Sunday the 12th. On Monday the 13th, his affectionate WhatsApp messaging with Michele began to go unanswered mid-afternoon. He began to worry. Later on Monday, a friend of Michele’s texted him to say that she had been stabbed and was seriously ill in hospital. The weekend, after he was informed that she had died.”
During the morning of the day before the murder, Gavin was said to have messaged Ms Kennedy’s mum, son and a “mutual contact” saying “never thought she was a s**g”, accompanied by “vomiting emojis”, after he had “plainly got wind of the fact that Michele had been with a man”. The following day, he bought four cans of Strongbow from a Co-op store near to his home before attending work with his son, who employed his dad in his own tiling business.
Shaw was described as a regular customer in the shop in question, with an employee having recalled him stating during this visit shortly before 8am: “She’s had a good weekend. She’s met with two fellas off holiday.”
Mr Ford went on to say of Shaw’s behaviour in the hours before the stabbing: “At 9.45am, he sent another text to a contact which said this. ‘She’s had a good weekend s***ging in Manchester’. The evidence is that Michele Kennedy’s situation was on his mind that morning, the day that he killed her.
“After work, in the early afternoon, the defendant and his son went for a drink at the local Warrington Conservative Club. It is a venue that he knew and went to often. Footage showed that the father and son drank several pints. A witness noted that Gavin ‘appeared like he was just having a pint after work, as I’ve seen him do many times’. ‘He didn’t seem agitated. When he left, he appeared his normal self, saying goodbye to me’.
“The evidence is that the vehicle they had gone to work in arrived back on Manchester Road at 12 minutes to four on the 13th, in the afternoon. Adam Shaw asked his father if he would go and get £50 from the cashpoint for a takeaway. Mr Shaw left. He took Adam’s bank card. At eight mins to four, footage from the Sainsburys opposite the addresses captures Mr Shaw leaving his front door and walking some little way on the pavement.”
Shaw was thereafter seen on Ring doorbell camera footage approaching Ms Kennedy’s home, being “noted to discernibly pause and take a moment” before turning the handle of the front door and entering. Mr Ford added: “The defendant emerged, to the second, three minutes later exactly. It is the prosecution’s case that, while inside for those three minutes, Gavin Shaw murdered Michele Kennedy by stabbing her in the chest twice with a kitchen knife.”
Gavin Shaw admitted murder after stabbing his 55-year-old partner Michele Kennedy to death(Image: Cheshire Police)
The court was shown a series of WhatsApp messages exchanged between Michele and Mr Riddick mere moments beforehand, with the latter telling his new girlfriend at 3.45pm: “I’ve been on your Facebook. Loads of beautiful pictures of you. I’ve screenshotted lots, just for me to look at my love of my life.”
At 3.42pm, 42 seconds before Shaw was seen to enter the address, Ms Kennedy then replied: “Have a listen to Paul Smith. It’s the comedian I was on about. The one when he talks about scouse girls is really funny x”
Mr Riddick would then tell her at 3.57pm “ok darling, will do”, a message accompanied by 10 heart emojis which was never replied to. Mr Ford said that his “declaration that she was the love of his life would have been visible” on her phone’s screen “immediately prior” to the stabbing, but said: “There is limited evidence of what happened at the scene.
“Her handset was found submerged in water in the kitchen sink. The defendant had not visited pre-armed with the knife, not with any weapon. Once inside the address, he took up the knife from a set of kitchen knives which she kept in the kitchen. They were bought for her as a gift from her mother.
“The footage captures Michele Kennedy emerge first. She is followed immediately by the defendant, but they are separate. There is no struggle nor commotion. It is just three minutes after his entry. She got to the end of her garden path, turned right down Manchester Road and slumped to the pavement.”
Shaw was meanwhile seen “milling about on the pavement” beside the busy main road while numerous vehicles passed the scene. One member of the public recalled seeing him “standing calmly over her, looking down”, with a picture which was taken by one witness having shown Ms Kennedy by now in possession of the knife with a “distressed” look on her face.
Two passing workmen then approached, with one kicking the weapon away between two wheelie bins. One of them, Louie Holt, called 999 after finding Michele “gasping and asking for her inhaler”.
Shaw was meanwhile described as “acting calmly, without emotion”, with Mr Ford saying: “He offered a slight smile to Mr Holt. The defendant lit a cigarette. The witness formed the impression that the defendant, quote, did not seem bothered. The witness, Mr Holt, said that he was scared by the extent of the defendant’s despondency.”
Having returned to his son’s house with “blood on his hands”, a “calm and vacant” Shaw then found his daughter-in-law Hayley Higgins washing up, at which stage he told her: “Hayley, I’ve stabbed Michele. You need to go and help her.”
Adam Shaw was also home at the time and “heard Mr Shaw snr confess”, saying that he had “used a Ninja knife to stab Michele”. He then grabbed hold of a towel and rushed to Ms Kennedy’s aid while his father “went and sat in the back garden and had a cigarette”.
Mr Ford added: “Hayley Higgins heard the defendant shouting, ‘she’s a s**g’. Hayley knelt down on the pavement with the deceased. The deceased said ‘he stabbed me’, and she was pale. She was struggling to breathe and she was, by now, in and out consciousness. This witness gave Michele an inhaler, put pressure on her wounds and held her hand.
“Emergency personnel attended, and significant attempts were made to save Michele Kennedy’s life. Her condition was deteriorating. The knife had caused substantial damage to a number of her internal organs, and a consultant surgeon was flown to the scene.
“Extensive surgical procedures were carried out on the roadside. She lost her pulse. She went into cardiac arrest due to extensive internal bleeding. One of her lungs had collapsed. This work carried on on the way to Aintree Hospital in an ambulance, where she was admitted at eight minutes past five. She needed an enormous blood transfusion. Her heart was empty.”
Having suffered stab wounds to her stomach and liver, with the blood supply to several other organs also being cut off, Ms Kennedy “remained clinically unstable in the days that followed” and underwent several rounds of surgery. However, she subsequently died as a result of her injuries at 10.18pm on October 18.
Michele Kennedy was stabbed to death at a house on Manchester Road in Warrington(Image: Cheshire Police)
Shaw was meanwhile estimated to be twice the drink driving limit at the time of the incident, saying in a prepared statement under interview following his arrest on suspicion of attempted murder: “I want to say that I’m devastated at what has happened. I didn’t intend to kill Michele.
“Everything happened very quickly. I felt emotionally overwhelmed and in shock. I didn’t make any conscious decision. It was a reaction in the heat of the moment. It felt like I snapped. I just grabbed the kitchen knife from the side in the kitchen. I’m in complete shock.”
Having been remanded into custody at HMP Altcourse, Shaw was then informed of Ms Kennedy’s death on October 19. Members of prison staff said in their evidence that he was “tearful and “distressed” at the news and commented: “It should never have got that far. I’d been screaming at her because she’d been on her back getting s***ged in Manchester.”
Shaw was also said to have given an account of “pushing her into the corner of the room, taking a knife and stabbing her once” while she was “saying ‘sorry’ and telling him ‘don’t, I’ll tell them it was an accident'”. He then reported that he had informed his son of the stabbing and “asked him to get an ambulance while he had a can of beer and lit a cigarette”.
A mental health nurse meanwhile reported hearing Shaw, who has no previous convictions, saying “f***, I shouldn’t have done it” after being told of Michele’s death. He also stated that he and Ms Kennedy had “argued about the weekend” and that she had “denied sleeping with the other man” before he had stabbed her.
Shaw pleaded guilty to murder during an earlier hearing in February. He appeared expressionless and emotionless throughout the hearing before he was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 15 years behind bars this afternoon.
Following the hearing, Cheshire Police released Ring doorbell camera footage of Shaw arriving at the address before officers rushed to the scene in the wake of the stabbing. Another video, taken from the body worn camera of one PC, captured his subsequent arrest and showed him being led away in handcuffs while saying: “That’s what you get when she’s s***ging someone in f***ing Manchester. You don’t have to hold me, I’m getting in the car.”
Shaw was thereafter heard to ask the arresting officer’s name before saying: “Right, so can we be nice? Even though I’ve done that. Will I get fed tonight? Lot of coppers here, ain’t there?”
Having been told “I think it’s ‘cos of the situation pal”, Shaw then adds “you don’t get many stabbings, do you?”. The PC meanwhile replies: “Not in Cheshire mate, not in Cheshire.”
Shaw thereafter repeats “lots of coppers, ain’t there?” as he is placed in the back of the police car, where he can be seen vaping after saying: “So how many years do you reckon I’ll get? 10? She can’t be that bad. They’ve not f***ed off in the ambulance.”
Further footage from the scene captured Shaw asking officers “how many murders do you have?” before moaning of the handcuffs on his wrists “that’s f***ing killing me that”. He was also said to have chillingly commented: “I’ve not done bad have I? Imagine you get home and find out your wife’s been s***ging someone in a hotel. I don’t do anything in halves.”
Gavin Shaw is accused of the murder of 55-year-old Michele Kennedy(Image: Facebook)
Judge Brian Cummings KC told Shaw in his sentencing remarks: “You and the victim had been married for about 12 years and lived at address where you later attacked her. There had been a history of volatility in your relationship in both directions, but one significant factor was certainly your alcoholism.
“Relations deteriorated to the point where you separated about three months before the murder. You went to live with your son. Unhappily, from a practical point of view, that was only two doors along.
“In late September, the victim and her mother went on holiday to Turkey, indicative of the new lease of life that she was enjoying. The victim met another man and enjoyed a holiday romance. A couple of weeks after she returned the UK, they spent the weekend together, staying together in hotels in Liverpool and Southport. You somehow got wind of this.
“You were inside the victim’s premises for exactly three minutes. During that time, you attacked her with a knife and caused injuries from which she later died. Following the attack, CCTV shows the victim emerging from her home and staggering a short distance to the pavement.
“Manchester Road is a very busy thoroughfare and her plight was observed by passing members of the public, some of whom came to her aid. You did nothing to assist, standing there smoking and referring to the victim as a s**g.
“Emergency assistance was given at the scene. The victim was later transported to hospital. You meanwhile were cautioned and arrested and placed into a police vehicle. Some footage was played, which captures some of the things that you were saying.
“These included, that’s what you get when she’s s***ging someone in f***ing Manchester. Imagine getting home and finding out your wife’s been s***ging someone else in a hotel. How many years will I get for this? I don’t do things by halves, do I? Your presentation throughout was callous and indifferent.
“The victim died in hospital some days later on the evening of Saturday, the 18th of October. When you were informed of that, you became emotional, saying it never should have got that far. Indeed, it shouldn’t. Even at that stage, you were still referring to this in vulgar and resentful terms.
“I say at the outset that I reject the suggestion that you have demonstrated any meaningful remorse. Remorse means being genuinely sorry for what you have done. I cannot accept that position when, very recently, you were seeking to pass some of the blame onto the victim. You bear sole responsibility for her murder and all of the consequences that have resulted from it.
“I am sure that you entered the victim’s house not with the intention of having any friendly chat but in a state of mind where you were inflamed by jealousy and resentment. Approaching her in that way was never likely to end well. You became violent and attacked her.
“After careful consideration, I am sure that, at the point where you attacked the victim with the knife, you acted with an intention to kill. I base that conclusion on the whole of the evidence, including the number and nature of knife injuries and what you said to the arresting officer, including asking ‘how many murders do you have?’.
“In my judgement, there are a number of serious aggravating factors. This was an offence of domestic violence. That, in itself, is a very serious aggravating factor. The victim was your wife. You and she had separated some months before the offence. I am entirely sure that your actions were motivated by jealousy and resentment at the fact she had moved on with her life. Your relationship with her was over.
“The prosecution have described this as a revenge killing. It was something akin to that, to get back at her or punish her for what you considered to be some sort of betrayal. You murdered her in her own home, which you had entered unannounced and uninvited.
“You committed the murder while under the influence of alcohol. That is always an aggravating factor. You committed the murder in circumstances where there was every likelihood that the immediate aftermath would be witnessed by members of the public, as indeed it was.
“Turning to mitigating factors, there are two. I accept that there was an absence of premeditation. Secondly, you are now 62 years old and have no previous criminal convictions. That is always a very important factor, however serious the offence.”
Michele’s family paid tribute to her in a statement issued following the hearing, saying: “Michele was a much loved daughter, mother, sister, auntie and nana. She was a larger than life character who would leave a lasting impression on all that met her, who would help anyone, was beautiful, strong, fearless and one of a kind.
“The loss of her life has left a massive hole in our family, and we know that her friends and colleagues who were involved in her life will feel the same. We would like to offer our extended thanks to all the emergency services that attended the scene and any kind person that tried to help. We will miss her very much.”