A ‘manipulative’ and ‘thoroughly evil’ man who strangled his girlfriend to death after a short but violent relationship has been jailed for life.
Kieron Goodwin, 33, has been sentenced to a minimum of 35 years in prison for the murder of 29-year-old Olivia Wood in Frome, Somerset last July.
He was also found guilty of 15 other offences against Ms Wood and three other women at Bristol Crown Court.
These included rape, assault by penetration, causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent and intentional strangulation.
Speaking after the sentencing, Ms Wood’s mother Astrid Wood paid tribute to her daughter, describing her as someone who was there to help others ‘no matter what’.
She added: ‘Olivia could disarm you with her wit, her beauty and her winning smile.
‘Olivia had a laugh you could hear from anywhere in the house. Olivia was the glue that held our family together.’
She described Goodwin, meanwhile, as ‘an unspeakably evil man’.
‘He is an egocentric sadistic beast. A morally deprived psychopath,’ she added.
Ms Wood’s death followed a campaign of physical and psychological abuse in a relationship that had started less than three months before.
This Is Not Right
On November 25, 2024 Metro launched This Is Not Right, a year-long campaign to address the relentless epidemic of violence against women.
With the help of our partners at Women’s Aid, This Is Not Right aims to shine a light on the sheer scale of this national emergency.
You can find more articles here, and if you want to share your story with us, you can send us an email at vaw@metro.co.uk.
Read more:
During this time, Goodwin had threatened to harm himself, forcing Ms Wood to take time off work and sent her WhatsApp messages pressurising her into having sex with another man, despite her repeatedly refusing.
The heard she transferred £6,000 to help pay his bills, which he spent on cocaine.
During the police investigation, a packed suitcase and bags filled with Ms Wood’s clothes and toiletries was found.
Jurors were told this pointed to the fact she was planning to leave. The pair had been together less than three months at the time.
After strangling Ms Wood, Goodwin called 999 in the early hours of July 30 2024, reporting that she was not breathing.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
She was taken to hospital and died a short while later with her family by her side.
Goodwin was arrested later that day.
The jury was told he used to ply women with drugs, threaten to send compromising photos to friends, family or work colleagues and report them to the police.
He made them hand over tens of thousands of pounds which he used to fund his cocaine habit and lifestyle while also threatening to harm himself if anyone rejected him in any way.
Goodwin, of Portway, Frome admitted controlling and coercive behaviour against each of the victims, but denied the other offences, claiming the women had consented to the sexual activity.
He was found guilty of murder and the other charges after a five-week trial at Bristol Crown Court.
Sentencing Judge Martin Picton imposed a mandatory life sentence for murder and nine other concurrent life sentences for the sexual offences.
‘You are a highly manipulative, determined, misogynistic, selfish, narcissistic and thoroughly evil individual,’ he said.
‘The term “evil” is not a superlative to use lightly, but in your case it is thoroughly deserved.
‘The evidence revealed you to be a master manipulator.
‘You were the perfect storm for Olivia and to a lesser or greater extent for all of your victims – a perfect storm of emotional, physical, financial and sexual abuse against which background you chose to exercise the control you wielded so as to cause your victims to take ever greater quantities of Class A drugs and to engage in ever more extreme non-consensual acts.”
He added: ‘You are thoroughly devious and manipulative as I have already identified.
‘Any woman coming under your influence will, in my judgment, be at very great risk of harm from you.
‘You are not to be trusted or taken at face value.’
In statements read out in court the three surviving victims spoke about the significant and long-term effect of his offending on each of them.
One said: ‘I hope that he may never be able to harm anyone ever again.’
A second added: ‘It pains me to know what he is capable of.
‘It pains me to know that I am alive and the other person is not.
‘He is not remorseful or sorry.
‘He is only sorry he got caught and the idea that he can go back into the world in the future to hurt me and others is something that I cannot bear.”
The third said: ‘I can genuinely say his behaviour and actions towards me will have a lifelong impact.’
Ms Wood’s sister Soscha Seymour said Goodwin had put her family through the trauma of a trial where he tried to trash her reputation.
‘He instead chose cowardice and a disgusting, misogynistic assassination of Olivia’s character in an attempt to weasel out of the vile actions he has committed,” she said.
‘Not only has her life been taken by this monster, but her reputation too.
‘I want this to be my opportunity to say loud and clear that Olivia was not this person and her memory does not deserve to be tarnished by the allegations made during this trial.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.