Barnsley man guilty of strangling wife with rolling pin

A HUSBAND has been found guilty of murdering his wife by strangling her using a rolling pin to tighten a noose around her neck.
Chantelle Barnsdale-QueanChantelle Barnsdale-Quean
Chantelle Barnsdale-Quean

Father-of-two Stephen Barnsdale-Quean, 43, tightened a metal chain around his wife Chantelle’s neck until she was dead on their bed.

He had earlier fastened together the ends of the chain with a hair bobble to make a loop which he put over her neck, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Barnsdale-Quean, who is due to be sentenced today, claimed his 35-year-old wife “frenziedly” attacked him out of the blue with a kitchen knife which was still stuck in his abdomen when paramedics arrived.

But the jury was told he had tried to make it look as if his wife had committed suicide by inflicting superficial injuries on his stomach, face and arms and then dripping his own blood over his wife’s body.

Barnsdale-Quean had denied murdering his wife at the flat they shared on Upperwood Road, Darfield, near Barnsley on March 4 this year.

There were gasps of “yes” from family members in the public gallery as the jury foreman delivered the verdict.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The court heard the couple had been married for 10 years but had run up debts and their previous home and car were repossessed.

Prosecutor Michael Slater said after strangling his wife Barnsdale-Quean inflicted upon himself the injuries “to give the false impression that he had been attacked by the deceased who had then gone on to take her own life using that ligature arrangement.”

He went on: “It can be shown that while still bleeding he entered the bedroom where she was unconscious or dead and dripped blood upon her and touched
her arms with his bloodstained arms while rearranging the 
body.”

The defendant was arrested in an ambulance on the way to hospital.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“When interviewed two days later he said she had attacked him with a knife for no apparent reason and denied any knowledge of the circumstances of her death,” said Mr Slater.

“He suggested it may be suicide.”

But the court heard Mrs Barnsdale-Quean had never indicated any thoughts of suicide to her family or friends and her husband never mentioned it in police interviews.

The defendant showed no emotion as the verdict was delivered before he was led to the cells.