Murder suspect claims he was ‘watching TV’ on night of fatal stabbing

A MAN accused of stabbing a massage parlour boss to death claims he may have been watching Peppa Pig at the time the businesswoman was murdered.
Jill HibberdJill Hibberd
Jill Hibberd

Lee Fueloep (40), of Willow Garth, Wombwell, is on trial at Sheffield Crown Court accused of killing Jill Hibberd (73) at her home on Roy Kilner Road, Wombwell.

Ms Hibberd, who was manager of massage parlour Fantasia in Attercliffe, was found dead on the morning of Thursday, May 31, with 70 stab wounds.

The prosecution say Fueloep stabbed Ms Hibberd “savagely and repeatedly” before stealing her Audi TT and selling it to buy drugs.

The defendant claims he found Ms Hibberd dead after going to her home to ask for money which had given him "the shock of my life".

Fueloep’s second police interview, conducted three days after Ms Hibberd’s body was found, was read to the jury yesterday (Monday).

He was asked what he was doing between 8pm and 10pm on May 30 — the time when, the prosecution say, he stabbed Ms Hibberd.

Fueloep said: “I was watching TV, playing with my daughter or cooking.

“I can’t remember what I was watching — maybe Tomb Raider, or Britain’s Got Talent, or maybe Peppa Pig because my daughter was up.

“I can’t really remember, I can’t remember, I know it’s not helping me but I really can’t remember.”

Fueloep said he had taken his dog for a walk between 6pm and 6.30pm that evening and was out for between 20 and 90 minutes.

He said he didn’t leave the house again until around 11pm.

Fueloep told police he knew Ms Hibberd, who had also lived in Rawmarsh and Clifton, because his dog attacked her two dogs and he had seen her “a couple of times”.

“I got talking [to Jill] and mentioned I do dog portraits and people portraits, stuff like that,” he told police.

“She said she wouldn’t mind me doing one of her dogs.”

Fueloep told police that he had asked Ms Hibberd to take photos of her dogs for him and on the night of the alleged stabbing he had cut his hand while opening a tin with a knife.

“I was going to go round to Jill’s to see if she had the photos and ask for some money because me and Jade [his partner] are proper skint,” said Fueloep.

“As I have gone down, this was shortly after 11pm I think, as I got to Jill’s house, the car’s not on the driveway, but the door is slightly ajar which I find strange.

“The lights were on and the TV was on.

“I’ve gone up to the door and shout Jill’s name, no answer, so I push the door.

“I pop my head in and that’s when I get the shock of my life.

“I have seen Jill just laid at the edge of the sofa and something told me, I knew she was dead because of the way she was just laid there.

“Obviously I have gone in to check her — it’s a half-hearted check because I have never been so scared in my life.”

Fueloep said he did not tell anybody about what he had seen.

“You’ve got to understand my past,” he said.

“I have been crime-free for a while but I have been a burglar in the past, I have been a thief in past and I have been a druggy in the past.

“Suspicion is going to fall straight on me and as it happens, it has.”

Fueloep denies murder. The trial continues.

 

 

 

Related topics: