‘Bully’ jailed for 32 years for murdering woman and burying body in forest

A “bully” who claimed he accidentally killed his ex-girlfriend when throwing an axe has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 32 years for her murder.

The family of 33-year-old Katie Kenyon appealed for others with concerns about controlling relationships to contact police following the sentencing of her killer Andrew Burfield, 51, who murdered and buried the mother-of-two in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire, on April 22.

In a statement read outside Preston Crown Court on Thursday, Detective Chief Inspector Allen Davies said: “Mr Burfield is a bully and controlled Katie throughout the relationship. She expressed concern throughout that relationship that Mr Burfield represented a risk to her and she expressed that to her family.

“They’re very keen to ensure that nobody else is harmed in the way that Katie was harmed on this occasion.”

Burfield, of Todmorden Road, Burnley, initially denied murder and told officers he had accidentally killed Miss Kenyon, from Padiham, when he threw an axe after she bet him he could not hit a drinks can with it.

A post-mortem examination revealed the mother-of-two, who began a relationship with Burfield in 2019, suffered at least 12 head injuries.

The court heard that after her death he used Miss Kenyon’s phone to send messages, drafted the month before her death, to her children and to himself.

He dug her grave in Gisburn Forest on April 21 and returned with Ms Kenyon the following day, where he killed her and buried her body.

Sentencing Burfield, the judge said: “In your relationship with her before you murdered her I’m satisfied you were manipulative and controlling while she was vulnerable.

“She looked to you for love and support, in return you planned to carry out her murder.”

“It was a ferocious and cruel attack,” he said.

“You calmly placed her in a grave and covered her body.”

He said the murder involved “careful preparation, deception and destruction of evidence and then an obviously implausible defence that it was all an accident”.

In a statement which she read to the court, Miss Kenyon’s sister, Sarah Kenyon-Holden, said the family went through a “full week of torture” as police searched for her.

“She wanted to stop him. She wanted answers. This cost her her life.”

Miss Kenyon’s family applauded in court following the statement from her sister.

Tim Storrie KC, defending, said: “We wish to make it clear that to no degree does he avoid responsibility for what he did and for the turmoil he has wreaked on Katie Kenyon and the community in which she lived.”