A martial arts enthusiast has been found guilty of stabbing his partner to death at their home and then holding a friend captive and driving through a police cordon.
Jason Bell, 42, attacked Nicole Hurley, 37, with at least two knives at their home in Primrose Hill, north-west London in October 2021. Afterwards, Bell turned up at the house of a friend with a large army-style knife and accused him of sleeping with Hurley.
He drove his van through a police cordon before checking himself into a mental health centre. A jury at the Old Bailey found him guilty of murder, dangerous driving and false imprisonment.
Previously, the prosecutor, Michelle Nelson KC, had said the couple had been in a “difficult and volatile” relationship since the victim was in her teens. The court heard that Bell, who trained at a martial arts club, would “explode” and punch and kick Hurley.
Nelson told jurors the “fast-moving and very frightening” incident in which Hurley was attacked was witnessed by two young people in the house.
She said: “It was an attack that appears to have come in three or four parts and one in which Nicole Hurley sustained multiple stab wounds, the result of the use of more than one knife.”
Hurley had repeatedly asked for an ambulance to be called because she could not breathe but Bell had taken all the mobile phones before leaving the house.
Neighbours were alerted and emergency services found Hurley with injuries to her neck and chest. She was pronounced dead at 1.46am. Bell had stashed a rucksack containing six phones and a bloody knife in a garden in Victoria Mews, Maida Vale, near the home of his longstanding friend Jeremy Drewitt.
The martial arts enthusiast then turned up at Drewitt’s home wearing a blood-stained dressing gown. He told his friend he had stabbed his partner and claimed he would hand himself in.
Bell demanded to know if his friend had slept with Hurley, saying if he was not truthful it was going to end badly before producing a foot-long knife.
Nelson said: “Mr Drewitt pushed the defendant away when he got close and tried to get out of the flat. He was frightened that he was going to be stabbed.
“The defendant was a big man, he estimates 19 stone, and Jeremy Drewitt knew he had martial arts training. The defendant pushed Mr Drewitt to the floor where he cut his hip on a vase that smashed.”
Later, Bell demanded that Drewitt hand over the keys to his van and he drove through police cordon tape with Drewitt in the van.
Bell eventually slowed down in traffic, giving Drewitt the opportunity to undo his seatbelt and jump out of the moving vehicle then make his way back to the cordon.
The defendant walked into a mental health assessment centre in St Pancras and asked to be sectioned. Armed police arrested Bell and he was shot with a Taser before being taken into custody.
The judge, Alexia Durran, adjourned sentencing until 12 October. DCI Jim Eastwood of the Metropolitan police said: “This was a frenzied, brutal attack on a defenceless woman while four children were in the home, two of whom witnessed the murder.”
