College killer in verdict appeal

A Wolverhampton College manager who murdered his girlfriend by stabbing her 60 times today launched an appeal against his life sentence – claiming he was too drunk to know what he was doing.

Stephen Dowds killed his lecturer lover Mandy Finn after the pair spent the night sharing up to two bottles of vodka at their flat in Newhampton Road West, Whitmore Reans.

The 50-year-old claims he suffered a "loss of self control" due to "acute intoxication with alcohol" when he murdered the 40-year-old mother-of-two on November 21 last year.

But jurors rejected his claim and Judge John Wait jailed him for life in June. Dowds claims a recent change in the law means his drunken state should have qualified as a "recognised medical condition", reducing his culpability.

Crown barrister Andrew Lockhart QC, said: "In the event this court finds alcohol intoxication is within the statutory definition, the floodgates will open for a vast number who, when getting themselves in a state of intoxication, have killed."

Dowds accepted he must have killed Miss Finn but said he had hardly any memory of the night.