Kirsty Carless: Woman who stabbed ex after seeing his new online dating profile is found guilty of murder

Kirsty Carless, 33, was found guilty of the murder of 31-year-old dad-of-six Louis Price. She stabbed her ex in the heart with a kitchen knife after catching a cab to his family home where he was living at the time.

Sentencing her in front of a packed public gallery, Judge Mr Justice Choudhury said Carless had “destroyed the life of a young man and his family”. Carless showed no reaction in the dock as Mr Justice Choudhury passed his sentence. She will spend at least 25 years in prison and was given a life sentence.

He said the defendant had shown “no remorse” for what she had done and instead concocted a false story that she could not remember what had happened.

The trial was told Carless had been at the pub drinking with a male friend on December 24 and had taken cocaine before they had sex three times at his home. She had been planning to stay the night when a female friend sent her a screenshot of Mr Price’s Tinder profile at around 1.30am on Christmas Day, which sent her into what Mr Justice Choudhury called “a jealous rage”.

Carless then left the male friend’s home, took a taxi back to her house, where she picked up a kitchen knife and got another taxi to Mr Price’s parents’ address, where she expected to find him with a woman but he was instead in a caravan in the back garden with friends.

CCTV showed her running up the front path into the house and then “stalking” him around the garden before he was later found with a single stab wound to the chest on the conservatory floor.

Carless had called Mr Price 45 times between 2.15am and 2.44am while she waited for the taxi to take her to the address where he had been staying since their relationship ended – only breaking up what prosecution counsel Jonas Hankin KC called the “barrage” of calls to impatiently phone the company to check where her taxi was.

After arriving, Carless asked the taxi driver to wait outside while she went into the property to stab Mr Price at around 3am.

Less than two minutes after arriving at the scene, Carless was “anxious and sweating” as she got back into the taxi and demanded the driver take her to her parents’ home, where she admitted what she had done and her stepfather called 999. The knife that Carless used to kill him was on the kitchen counter when officers arrived. Nothing could be done to save Louis and he was pronounced dead by paramedics at 3.46am on Christmas Day.

Mr Justice Choudhury said: “Less than two minutes is all it took for you to take a life and ruin many others, including your own.”

He added that Mr Price had only been inside the house for around six seconds, which meant Carless must have stabbed him “on sight”.

The judge said: “The intention to kill was plain. You stabbed him in the chest, a highly vulnerable part of the body. Having stabbed him, you didn’t stop there, you callously chased him around the garden brandishing a knife. You then fled, leaving him to die. You have showed no remorse for what you did, instead claiming falsely that you didn’t remember.”

The judge paid tribute to the “dignity” of Mr Price’s family, who all wore “Justice for Louis” T-shirts as they watched the sentencing.

In a victim impact statement, Mr Price’s mother Eleanor said her son had been “murdered by the woman he loved” and described him as a “funny, beautiful man”.

She said: “Our hearts have been ripped apart. I brought Louis into this world and I should have left before him. Every minute of every day, I think about my boy. He was no angel, but thanks to Kirsty, he’s now my angel. It is thanks to Kirsty that his children no longer have a dad. How can we ever get over something like this? We never will.”

Mr Price’s father Graham described him as “my son, my fishing buddy, my best friend” and said his life had been taken by an “act of evil”.

He said: “Louis lost his life, she took it from him. We will never forget Louis or forgive what has happened to him.”

Carless was on trial at Stafford Crown Court and was found guilty of murder and possession of an offensive weapon in a public place. She was also found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm by a majority of 11 to one in connection with an incident in November 2024 for which she was on police bail, but was cleared of intentional strangulation in relation to the same incident.

Louis’ family said previously: “On Christmas Day 2024, our family’s lives changed forever, our world would never be the same. We lost our son, brother, father, uncle, best friend, and fishing buddy forever. Our hearts ache just waiting every day to wake up from a nightmare. But we never will because this is our reality.

“A reality where Louis was murdered by the woman who he loved. The trauma that Kirsty has caused our family will never leave us, now knowing the details of what has happened and everything we have had to go through because of what Kirsty has done will haunt us for the rest of our lives. Walking into our family home where we know Louis passed away is a constant and unforgiving reminder.

“Louis leaves behind his children, who he will never get to see grow up. They will never get to have their dad see them get married or go through life. Louis was the beating heart of this family. He was funny, vibrant and kind hearted, and with losing him all of our hearts have a little piece missing.

“No sentence will ever be long enough for what Kirsty has done, nothing can bring back our Louis, but having justice against Kirsty is a small step towards ensuring his memory lives on and she pays for what she has done.

“We would like to thank Graham’s dad and Eleanor’s family for the love and support they have shown us through what has been the hardest part of our lives. Also, we would like to thank all of the legal team and all of the investigating team who have helped to bring justice for Louis.”

Carless, of Haling Way in Cannock, Staffordshire, killed Louis in Elm Road, Norton Canes.

Det Insp Lisa Holland, from Staffordshire Police’s major investigations department, led the investigation. She said: “Louis was tragically taken from his family and friends by a manipulative and jealous woman.

“His family have been incredibly brave throughout this whole process and have endured horrific pain, which is going to stay with them forever. I’m pleased that Carless is going to serve justice for what she did to Louis, his family and everyone who knew him.”

As Carless had been on police bail for assaulting Mr Price at the time of the fatal stabbing, Staffordshire Police made a referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, who decided not to investigate and the case was passed back to the force’s professional standards department.

In a statement, Staffordshire Police said: “A number of positive actions were taken to mitigate the risks identified, which included arresting Kirsty Carless, imposing bail conditions to prevent her from having further contact with Louis Price, them living at separate addresses, and the submission of a public protection notice for consideration at a multi-agency risk assessment conference.

“No misconduct or learning was identified and officers updated Louis’s father and explained the decision.”