Cheryl Hooper murder: Jealous husband is jailed for life over shotgun killing
Shropshire farmer Andrew Hooper was today jailed for life for murdering his estranged wife Cheryl Hooper in a jealous rage as she sat in her Range Rover outside her home in Newport.
Hooper, 46, known as Jack, will serve a minimum of 31 years minus time spent on remand.
He had denied murdering Cheryl on January 26 last year and showed no emotion as the unanimous verdict was delivered at Birmingham Crown Court.
Hooper callously shot 51-year-old Cheryl in front of her teenage daughter outside her new home in Farmers Gate, in a fit of rage and jealousy when she left him.
He suffered severe facial injuries and lost the ability to speak after turning his shotgun on himself after the attack on Cheryl.
Jailing Hooper, Judge Mark Wall QC told him: "The sentence that I must pass on you is one that you richly deserve - life imprisonment.
"This was not a spur-of-the-moment killing, it was one that you had planned in the hours leading up to it. I am sure it was your intention to kill."
Saying Hooper had not expressed any remorse or regret after leaving a "horrific aftermath" when he fled the scene, the judge added: "This was not a last-minute decision to kill arrived at outside Cheryl's, but rather a planned execution."
Full coverage of the trial:
Following the verdict, it emerged that Hooper was given a suspended sentence in 2004 after breaking into his first wife's home and threatening to kill her.
Prosecutor David Mason QC told the court: "This defendant, after they had separated, broke into her house one night armed with a knife and surgical gloves, and threatened to kill her and her new partner.
"That's the only conviction he has. He was prosecuted for aggravated burglary but in fact pleaded guilty to an affray and received a suspended sentence."
Mrs Hooper's daughter Georgia, who was 14 at the time and witnessed the shooting, read a victim impact statement to the court, saying of her mother: "For her to just be gone, my whole life has gone."
The court heard that Hooper, of Guild Lane, Sutton, near Newport, murdered his wife following a confrontation in a pub in Wolverhampton earlier that night.
He had seen her there with friends including a man he accused her of having an affair with.
Hooper claimed the gun had discharged accidentally. He said that he had not intended to cause his wife "serious harm".
The jury heard that he had installed a tracking device to her car to find out where she was going.
Prosecutors had told the court that Hooper, known as Jack, had "murder in his eyes" when he deliberately shot his 51-year-old wife.
The Crown said he deliberately shot her in the neck from about 1.5 metres away because he was "consumed with anger and jealousy" after she left him at the end of 2017.
An internal investigation by West Mercia Police and Staffordshire Police was completed several weeks ago. The results are expected to be released shortly after the trial.
Nicola Heath from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Hooper had put a tracker on the victim’s car and followed her home, armed with a loaded shotgun and the intention of murdering her.
“He shot her at close range in the presence of her 14 year old daughter and murdered her in cold blood.
“Knowing that he had just murdered his wife, he left a suicide note and attempted to take his own life.
“Despite the overwhelming evidence, Hooper denied murdering his wife. He claimed that he had only intended to scare her and shot her by accident. However, the CPS presented strong evidence to rebut his claim and as a result guilty verdicts were passed.
“This is a truly sad case and one cannot imagine what the family and friends of the victim must be going through. My thoughts are with them at this difficult time.”
Mrs Hooper's death led to an outpouring of grief from the Newport community, which also banded together to raise funds in her name.
Thousands of pounds were collected for her family. There were nearly 200 supporters for the cause.
