Murderer jailed for killing Katie Kenyon with axe and burying her body in Lancashire forest
Video report by Tim Scott
A man who claimed he had accidentally killed his ex-girlfriend when throwing an axe has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 32 years for her murder.
Andrew Burfield, 51, killed and buried 33-year-old Katie Kenyon in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire, on 22 April.
Her body was found a week later when he revealed its location to police.
Burfield, of Todmorden Road, Burnley, initially denied murder and told officers he had accidentally killed Miss Kenyon, from Padiham, when he threw an axe after she bet him he could not hit a can of Coke with it.
A post-mortem examination revealed the mother-of-two, who began a relationship with Burfield in 2019, suffered at least 12 head injuries.
Burfield changed his plea to guilty on the third day of his trial at Preston Crown Court.
He was sentenced to life by judge Mr Justice Goose on Thursday.
The Judge told Burfield: "It was a ferocious and cruel attack. You calmly placed her in a grave and covered her body."
In a statement which she read to the court, Miss Kenyon's sister, Sarah Kenyon-Holden, said the family went through a "full week of torture" as police searched for her.
She said: "Katie told us she wanted to stop Andrew Burfield from being able to do what he did to her to other women.
"She wanted to stop him. She wanted answers. This cost her her life."
Police footage of Burfield being taken back to the grave site.
The court heard after her death he used Miss Kenyon's phone to send messages, drafted the month before her death, to her children and to himself.
On April 21 he travelled to Gisburn Forest with a set of ladders and spade he had borrowed from his parents.
He went back to the location the following day with Miss Kenyon, travelling in his Ford Transit van and stopping off at McDonald's on the way, the court heard.
The jury in his trial was told Burfield spent just over 42 minutes in the forest, where he killed her and buried her body.
Detective Chief Insp Al Davies, of Lancashire Police's Force Major Investigation Team, said: “My thoughts remain with Katie’s family at this truly distressing time and I hope today’s sentencing will finally give them some sense of closure and allow them to finally grieve the mother, daughter and sister who was taken from them in the most barbaric circumstances.
“Andrew Burfield is a wicked, deceitful bully who sought to isolate Katie from her family so he could control and manipulate her. When it became clear that she was no longer seduced by his fanciful lies he set himself on an abhorrent course of conduct which would eventually lead to the pre-planned murder of a kind, loving mother-of-two.
"He first sent bailiffs to her house, revelling in the distress that it caused her. He then sought to rekindle the relationship, all to lure Katie to the woods where he would murder her in the most heinous of circumstances."
Burfield's police interview after he had been arrested on suspicion of kidnap.
Detective Chief Insp Al Davies added: “No sentence will ever make up for leaving children without their mother and family and friends facing the most unimaginable grief, but I welcome the life sentence handed down to Burfield. I hope Katie’s family can take some solace in knowing this dangerous monster is now behind bars for a significant period of time.
“Again, I would like to place on record my thanks to all the officers involved in this case who worked tirelessly to secure justice for Katie and her family. I would also like to thank colleagues from the CPS and KC’s David McLachlan and Emma Kehoe
“As a force we will continue to prioritise violence against women and girls, to target those who prey on them and to make our communities safe for all.”