A 60-year-old “monster” who strangled his estranged wife to death with his bootlace after making arrangements for a friend to care for his dog has been jailed for life.
Rachel McDaid, 53, was found dead with the lace tied around her neck, bruising to her face and broken ribs in her home in Nottingham Road, Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, on the morning of April 19.
Her estranged partner, Michael McDaid, pleaded guilty last week to carrying out the fatal attack after finding out that she had filed for divorce in what he described to the court as “the most awful crime possible”.
Judge Stuart Rafferty KC sentenced McDaid at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 23 years and four months.
McDaid made sure the mother-of-three was home alone, tied loops at the ends of the lace to create a ligature, and asked a friend to look after his dog if “anything happened” to him, even going as far as putting items for his dog into a carrier bag.
Prosecution barrister James Varley said that Mrs McDaid “harboured a desire to get back with the defendant” but that he “strung her along” while cancelling her car and home insurance payments until she filed for divorce.
Minutes later he returned to find his eldest son trying to get in and warned him: “You can’t go in because I’ve killed her.”
Mr Varley said the defendant “did not show emotion” and was “completely calm” during this conversation, and drove away while calling 999 to admit to the attack, leaving his son “panicking, terrified and crying”.
The eldest son shared by the estranged couple, Owen McDaid, 23, found his mother dead by climbing in through a window.
He read an impact statement to the court, calling his father a “monster”.
He addressed the defendant, who sat emotionless in the dock, and said: “You, my so-called father, have ruined my life and your other sons’ lives too.
“I thought you were a loyal, caring and kind husband and father but you could not be further from that.
“The man sitting here today is not my dad, he’s a monster”.
There was no justification for her death and no history of her treating you as the victim. All of this was in your own warped mind
Judge Stuart Rafferty KC
Defence barrister Clive Stockwell KC read a statement from the defendant to the court which said he “always loved” his wife but he was in a place with his mental health he could “see no way out of”.
McDaid wrote: “I have committed the most awful crime possible. I will always be haunted by that decision.”
Mr Stockwell told the judge: “Michael McDaid killed his wife because he felt she caused him years of emotional suffering. He understands that this affords him no excuse or justification for taking Rachel’s life.”
Judge Rafferty addressed the defendant, who was wearing a grey tracksuit, and said: “To say you had no alternative than to kill her is frankly ludicrous.
“There was no justification for her death and no history of her treating you as the victim. All of this was in your own warped mind.
“Even now I’m not sure you have any idea just what harm you have caused.”
Detective Chief Inspector Clare Dean, of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit, said: “Michael McDaid arrived at the family home that morning with a clear intention to murder Rachel and knew exactly how he’d do it.
“In taking his former partner’s life, he also deprived their three sons of a mother and destroyed their family.”
