Thame teacher’s murderer jailed for life 29/01/10

A man who stabbed a Thame teaching assistant to death while she was out walking her dogs has been jailed for life by Reading Crown Court.

Sally Garwood, who worked at Lord Williams’s school in Thame, was attacked by chef, Robert Cusworth, in July last year at Meadowcroft playing fields in Aylesbury.

Cusworth told police that he had woken up that morning in a bad mood and had taken a kitchen knife so that he could hurt someone.

Robert Cusworth, 25, who admitted murdering Sally Garwwod at an earlier hearing at Reading Crown Court on December 21, last year, will serve a minimum of 20 years imprisonment reduced by six months for time already served in prison.

Carl Barker, the reviewing lawyer from Thames Valley Crown Prosecution Service, said: ?This was an utterly senseless and motiveless attack by a man on a much smaller woman who was simply enjoying walking her dog on a Saturday afternoon on a popular piece of public land in Aylesbury.

?Robert Cusworth did not know Sally Garwood let alone harbour any previous bad feelings towards her. As he told police, he was in a bad mood, and he had bought a knife the day before because he felt ?very very angry? and wanted ?to hurt someone?. He had walked to Quarrendon Fields that afternoon armed with the knife knowing that he was ?going to do something really bad?. By a tragic coincidence, Sally Garwood happened to be walking in that part of the fields when Mr Cusworth was waiting for a victim.

“We offer our deepest sympathies to all who knew Sally Garwood. She was deeply loved and is desperately missed by her family. A remarkable feature of this tragedy is the courage shown by her husband, parents, brother and sisters throughout their ordeal. We hope that the conclusion of the court proceedings can bring them some measure of comfort.”