‘Evil’ Worksop killer stabbed young mum to death in ‘merciless’ screwdriver attack

David Jackson, 68, inflicted 199 separate injuries "of varying severity" to 27-year-old Mckyla Taylor's head and face, in his bedroom on August 15 last year, Nottingham Crown Court was told.

"She attempted in vain to fend off his onslaught," said prosecutor Gordon Apsden. "She was literally fighting for her life. It must have been a painful and terrifying ordeal."

The fatal blow penetrated the bone in her midface and punctured the brain.

Jackson cut the straps on her top and the front of her bra, before pulling a duet over her body and leaving his flat “in a daze" for hours.

"We don't know when he left his address or where he went," Mr Apsden said.

The court heard Jackson and his victim had been in a "mutually dependent relationship" in which he paid her for drugs and sexual services, including beating him.

"Although this was a particularly savage murder there is insufficient evidence to conclude it involved a sexual or sadistic conduct," Mr Apsden added.

He said the murder was aggravated by her relative vulnerability, due to gender, size and addiction to drugs, the extensive mutilation, and Jackson’s “previous mistreatment and sexual exploitation of her”.

A "grotesque and obscene spectacle" greeted the police when they forced entry to his first floor flat on Lowtown Street, at 2am the following day.

Mckyla's dead body was found with terrible facial injuries and covered in blood, said Mr Apsinall.

Furniture and a bike were scattered around and on the body and there was blood on the walls.

Jackson was met by police when he returned at 4am with "fresh scratches and bruises". He told officers: "Oh. She was already dead when I was stabbing her."

In his cell, he said to another officer: "It was silly that I could not just tell them what happened."

At the time of Mcklya’s murder, Jackson was on bail for assaulting her, on March 22, when she was seven-months pregnant.

He also tried to assault her with a “small rake” on an earlier occasion.

A local sex worker later told police Jackson would become aggressive after using crack-cocaine and vowed: “I am not going to jail, I will kill her (Mcklya) and myself first.”

The court heard he has previous convictions for sex offences dating back to the 1970s.

Mary Prior, mitigating, said Jackson spent a £190,000 inheritance from his mother to buy "company on an almost daily basis".

He became addicted to class A drugs at the age of 60, but, by August 2022, was reliant on benefits and was “socially isolated.”

Mrs Prior said Jackson and Mckyla had a "mutually dependent relationship" and were "friends for a very long time."

In one text message she told him: "Don't you dare leave me Dave."

"They spoke about other matters,” Mrs Prior said. “Up until the difficulty which resulted in the common assault conviction - it had been going on without violence."

Described as "small in stature" and only weighing 8.5 stones, Mckyla lived on Vicars Walk, a third of a mile away from Jackson.

She and her partner were "both addicted to class A drugs and deeply involved in the local drug scene," said Mr Aspinall. They had visited their daughter on the morning of Mckyla's murder.

On August 15, Jackson, Mckyla and her partner all smoked crack before Mckyla and Jackson went to his home to get money for more drugs.

She phoned her partner to say she would be returning home soon as Jackson didn’t have any drugs, and there was shouting in the background.

Jackson, who sat in the dock wearing repaired glasses, was expressionless as he heard Mckyla's sister talk about the devastating impact on her family.

"I hate you with every part of me," she told him. "I hope you rot in prison. No amount of years will ever be justice for what you did to my poor sister."

The court also heard statements from Myckyla's family.

Her brother said: "Mckyla was such a beautiful girl, inside and out. Her laugh would cure even the saddest times.

"My life will never be the same again. She was a selfless woman. She would never want to harm anyone.

"All she wanted was to be a mother. She finally got her chance but it was ripped away from her."

Mckyla's mother branded Jackson "an evil man" and said: "The agony you have put me and my family through will forever leave its scars.

"How can you live with yourself knowing what you have done?

"All she ever wanted was to be a mummy. She only got that for four short months before you snatched all that away from her."

Jackson pleaded guilty to murder when he appeared in court on Wednesday. Judge John Sampson adjourned sentencing until tomorrow.