Mark Masefield: Double killer jailed for Marie Gladders murder

A killer who escaped justice for 25 years has been jailed for a second time after murdering his partner.

Mark Masefield, 53, fatally smashed a friend over the head with a scaffolding pole in 1987 but stayed silent for years before he confessed.

After his release from prison, he stabbed girlfriend Marie Gladders to death last year following a campaign of controlling and violent behaviour.

At Birmingham Crown Court, Masefield was jailed for at least 20 years.

Prosecutor Robert Price told the court the defendant attacked dental receptionist and scout leader Ms Gladders with a kitchen knife at his home in the Stockland Green area on 12 November.

After stabbing her four times, he waited two to three hours to inform police he had killed the 51-year-old.

Turning to Masefield's previous conviction for the killing of close friend Anthony Pryke, Mr Price said he had kept the attack secret for almost 25 years until confessing to a friend in 2010 and police a year later.

After striking Mr Pryke with the metal bar, the defendant wrapped his body in bed sheets and pushed it head-first into a sewage drain, leading investigators to believe he had been suffocated by toxic fumes.

Despite many people long suspecting Mr Pryke's brother David of the 1987 killing, Masefield, who was 19 at the time, chose "year upon year" to say nothing, the court heard.

He was jailed for 11 and a half years in 2012, and released on licence in 2017 after serving half his sentence.

By the time of Ms Gladders' murder last November, the Probation Service said he was no longer on licence, despite his sentence being due to expire in January 2023.

The court heard Ms Gladders had complained to friends about Masefield's history of violent behaviour, including one instance where he held a blowtorch to her head.

Masefield texted his children to say "I won't see you again," after the killing, and during his 999 call asked for police and told the operator: "I stabbed her in the back."

Ms Gladders was pronounced dead at the scene and, when quizzed by officers about the circumstances of the attack, Masefield remarked: "Gingers are always feisty".

Judge Paul Farrer QC, sentencing, said Masefield, who admitted murder, was "controlling" and jealous of Ms Gladders' "close relationship with the father of her child".

"It is apparent from the nature and ferocity of this attack that you intended to kill her," he said.

"You left her bleeding on the floor and left her for two to three hours before calling emergency services.

"This attack was both an abuse of power and an abuse of trust... a culmination of controlling and violent behaviour towards her."

As he handed down a life sentence, the judge said Masefield's previous conviction was a "significant aggravating factor" in setting the minimum custodial term.

In a victim impact statement read in court, Ms Gladders's daughter Mary Ballard described her as having "a heart of gold" and spoke of the "complete horror and suffering that my family have endured".

"Mark Masefield didn't just take one life that night, he destroyed many," she said. "Nobody will ever understand our pain.

"What he did was inhumane - he made her suffer."

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