A 62-year-old man who murdered his partner in his Plymouth flat and concealed her body there for days has been jailed for life.
Mark Fitzgerald will serve a minimum of 22 years for the murder of 54-year-old Lisa Paris who was found dead in his Stonehouse flat on 18 March 2024.
Her body was discovered that night after Fitzgerald faked finding her unconscious and called out to neighbours for help.
But mother-of-four Miss Paris may have been killed anywhere up to 10 days before and her body left hidden under blankets and bedding.
She had sustained 70 separate bruises to her head, neck, body, arms and legs.
Fitzgerald, of Rendle Street, denied murder but was found guilty following a trial at Plymouth Crown Court and sentenced today, 12 December.
The court heard that the victim and Fitzgerald had been in a relationship for eight years and both had flats in the same Rendle Street building.
Miss Paris, pictured below, mainly lived in Fitzgerald’s flat and acted like a carer to him due to his health issues and alcohol dependency.
Witnesses described how Fitzgerald had previously been abusive and violent towards his partner and was convicted in 2020 for attacking Miss Paris on the head with a knife.
They described Miss Paris as becoming frail and suffering a significant downturn in health in the months before she died.
Miss Paris was last seen on CCTV putting the rubbish out around 9.05pm on 8 March 2024.
The jury heard that a maintenance man went to Fitzgerald’s flat on 9 March to fix a water leak and saw an empty quilt cover concealing or hiding what looked like a body on the floor.
Fitzgerald was aggressive and claimed that someone was there but was asleep.
The flat was extremely untidy and cluttered with rubbish bags in the kitchenette, piles of blankets and duvets in the main living area and clothes were scattered all over.
Fitzgerald told concerned neighbours on 16 March that he hadn’t seen Lisa for two days as they had argued and she had ‘gone off in a mood’.
On the night of 18 March, Fitzgerald was heard shouting for help saying: “she’s not breathing, she’s dead” and asking for an ambulance.
A paramedic who was first on the scene around 9.15pm described finding a neighbour carrying out CPR while Fitzgerald appeared ‘disinterested’ and was on the sofa counting a large amount of cash.
He said he had woken up after two days asleep due to alcohol and found her not breathing.
But a forensic post-mortem deemed that Miss Paris had been dead for at least 36 hours and may possibly have died any time up to 8 March when she was last seen.
She had suffered 70 bruise wounds, some blunt-force injuries and had finger-grip-type wounds around her neck.
However pathologists were unable to ascertain a specific cause and time of death.
Fitzgerald was arrested at the scene and in police interview consistently denied he was responsible for the death of Miss Paris. He was charged with murder on 29 May this year.
Detective Inspector Neil Blanchard, of the Major Crime Investigation Team, said:
“We welcome today’s sentence for Fitzgerald who is a dangerous individual who has never admitted or shown any remorse for his unforgiveable and callous actions.
“I want to pay tribute to Lisa’s family who have suffered an unimaginable loss in devastating circumstances but have acted with great patience and dignity throughout the investigation and court proceedings. I hope today’s outcome brings them some measure of peace.
“I would also like to thank the investigation team for their diligence and hard work on this very sad case.”
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