Andrew Wadsworth, a former professional MMA fighter from the UK, is to be sentenced after being convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend after she ‘confessed to being a prostitute who slept with members of her family’.
Wadsworth, 37, who holds a 2-2 professional record inside the cage, confessed to stabbing 32-year-old Melissa Belshaw to death at a residence in Wigan, Greater Manchester last May – telling the court that he “lost control” after Belshaw admitted that she had been working as an escort.
He said that the admission left him felling “humiliated and betrayed,” particularly after he recounted that Belshaw told him that she had slept with two members of her own family. She also allegedly told him that she was involved in arranging a physical assault on Wadsworth in the past.
Wadsworth was also found guilty of a separate charge of attempted murder of another person who he stabbed repeatedly outside the scene of the crime – something he referred to as a “terrible mistake” after attempting to admit the lesser charge of ‘wounding with intent to cause serious injury’.
He was cleared, though, of charges related to threats to kill Belshaw’s 13-year-old daughter who alleged that he had held a knife to her throat during the rampage.
Speaking to the court, prosecutors described Wadsworth and Belshaw’s relationship as “volatile” and that it centered around “drink, drugs and sex“.
They also warned the court not to take on board rumors about Belshaw’s sex life which they said was an attempt to “shift blame” from the “cold and callous murder.”
Wadsworth is expected to be handed a life sentence when he is jailed Thursday, according to the Manchester Evening News.
