Ailish Walsh: Man who killed pregnant girlfriend has sentence cut

The sentence was reduced because there was no sexual element to the offending, Mrs Justice Justine Thornton said.

Andrew Morris, representing Taylor, said the sentencing judge incorrectly used words including “sadistic” and “sexual” to categorise Taylor’s sentence but there was “no factual basis that his conduct was sexual in nature”.

He accepted that Ms Walsh was stabbed in the genitals and abdomen but argued that Taylor had not intended to kill the female foetus.

Instead, he said the “frenzied attack was a loss of temper, on the spur of the moment”.

Taylor has previous convictions for attacking female members of his family.

Jane Osborne KC, representing the Crown Prosecution Service, said Ms Walsh’s wounds were “a clear attempt to inflict direct injury on the foetus he knew the deceased was carrying, and who he knew was his”.

Mrs Justice Thornton, sitting with Lord Justice Tim Holroyde and Mr Justice Matthew Nicklin, said Taylor had “left Ms Walsh to die and made no attempt to contact the emergency services” afterwards.

Though she said the sentencing judge was “entitled to find many, very serious aggravating features” in the case, there was no sexual element to the offending, allowing a reduction in the sentence.