Woman who stabbed professional boxer boyfriend convicted of manslaughter but cleared of murder

Newly released police body cam footage has captured the moment a woman who killed her professional boxer boyfriend during a row last year was arrested for attempted murder. 

Kayley Mahood, 30, fatally stabbed her partner Oliver O’Toole at their home in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, on July 25 last year.

Mahood told a trial at Stafford Crown Court she acted in self defence by inflicting the single 1.5in stab wound to 31-year-old Mr O’Toole, puncturing his heart and causing him to bleed to death as paramedics battled to save him.  

The defendant was cleared of the initial charge of murder but jurors today rejected her claims of self defence and convicted her of manslaughter.

Mahood started ‘gasping for air’ as the jury foreman delivered the verdict, Staffordshire Live reports.   

Prosecutors had alleged Mahood was a ‘woman capable of great violence and rage’ and ‘always had to have the last word’ in arguments, despite her claim she had been punched in the face during a row.  

Mahood was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on Thursday.

31-year-old former professional boxer Oliver O’Toole died on July 25 last year after Mahood stabbed him at their home

Opening the Crown’s case last week, prosecutor Caroline Goodwin QC said Mr O’Toole collapsed in his back yard after being seen slumped on a wall.

Miss Goodwin told the court Mr O’Toole, who had previously tried his hand at professional boxing, was pronounced dead at 12.32pm after paramedics called by a neighbour arrived shortly before midday.

The court heard the couple’s relationship was ‘tempestuous’ relationship – with claims of violence on both sides.

Angry text messages were also read out in court. In one of these, Mahood called Mr O’Toole an ‘alchy woman beater’ and a ‘loser’ while he referred to her as a ‘sket’ and a ‘full-ball slag’.

Witnesses said Mahood walked away from the scene as her partner lay bleeding and added she was ‘reluctant’ to talk to paramedics, when her neighbour tried to put her on the phone during a 999 call.  

The jury learned Mahood had changed her story several times, firstly by saying she threw the knife in his general direction and later that he had walked into the blade.   

Kayley Mahood, 30, has been cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter after she stabbed boxer Oliver O’Toole at their home in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, on July 25 last year

Footage issued by Staffordshire Police shows Kayley Mahood being arrested by officers in the aftermath of her fatal stabbing of Oliver O’Toole

In her closing speech to the jury, defence QC Rachel Brand said the moderate force used to inflict the fatal injury suggested Mahood had acted out of fear.

Ms Brand said of the 4cm-deep wound suffered by Mr O’Toole: ‘Is this relatively shallow wound more consistent with a person who lashed out swiftly in fear to get someone away from them?

‘We say the evidence here points to self-defence and that the prosecution have not proved otherwise.

‘What happened was a tragedy ladies and gentlemen.

‘But it wasn’t the crime of murder or the crime of manslaughter because in that crucial moment what the evidence shows you is that she only did what she honestly thought was necessary to defend herself.’