A 23-year-old woman has been given a life sentence in the UK after killing her boyfriend, stabbing him to death during an argument over him “spending too much time on Facebook”.
Terri-Marie Palmer, a hairdresser from Heysham, Lancaster, was found guilty of killing boyfriend Damon Searson on Friday, after being arrested for murder in August 2015. The arrest was made after police were called to a caravan in Morecambe, finding Searson with severe stab wounds to his chest. Though Palmer had made the call, she told police that he had accidentally stabbed himself in the chest after the pair had been play-fighting.
However, with Palmer giving police a number of different accounts, it became evident that the fatal stabbing had occurred following an argument between the pair regarding his social media use. According to a report from the Lancashire Evening Post, paramedics attempting to revive Searson at the scene, but he went into cardiac arrest en route to the hospital and was declared dead at 1:28 am.
Terri-Marie Palmer and Damon Searson.
Preston Crown Court heard that moments before the stabbing, Palmer had messaged a friend saying: “He pisses me off sitting on Facebook, completely blanking me when I’m talking to him.” According to The Mirror, she had posted multiple status updates bemoaning how much time Searson spent on the site, with him reportedly adding random girls as friends on the social network and “posting shirtless photos of himself”. On one of his topless photos, Palmer wrote: “Gross”, to which Searson replied: “Didn’t expect any different to come out of your mouth f***king b**ch”.
Palmer had reportedly planned to leave Searson in August, complaining that she had to pay for his rent as a result of him being unemployed and that he had become increasingly possessive of her. On August 14th she had murdered him, covering his body with a duvet and leaving the bloodied knife on the floor, before calling emergency services.
