A TRANSGENDER woman is facing life in jail for stabbing her killer boyfriend to death after they met in a men’s prison.
Before she transitioned, Aurin Makepeace met Steven Rothwell in the early 2010s, when they were behind bars for wounding and murder.
Rothwell, 41, was found in the bathroom of his home on August 19 last year with a stab wound to the chest.
Chester Crown Court heard that Makepeace fatally stabbed him with a kitchen knife at his flat in Macclesfield, Cheshire, before spending the night.
CCTV from near Rothwell’s flat shows both of them making several trips to a local shop to buy alcohol during her stay.
A jury convicted her of murder at Chester Crown Court after a three-week trial.
Makepeace, from Prestatyn, north Wales, claimed Rothwell was holding a knife and it accidentally went into his chest when they were “grappling”.
Blood stains were found in the bathroom, shower and kitchen sinks at his flat.
She told the court she was trying to stop him from attacking another man, who he threatened to kill.
The convicted murderer had been told Gary Kuruc had slept with his “sometime girlfriend”, she said.
Rothwell’s body was found at 10.43pm on August 19. Makepeace had travelled to Prestatyn and called 999 to say: “I killed my boyfriend.”
She claimed she was still at the flat and initially said her name was “Luchay” – her middle name – but then said it was “Katie”, the name of Rothwell’s current girlfriend.
She had already told someone she “killed Steven”, the court heard.
Makepeace told another friend: “I’ve murdered my boyfriend.”
She claimed that she had stabbed him because he had been strangling her.
She then drank vodka under a bush, before cops picked her up.
Richard Pratt KC, prosecuting, said Rothwell’s death was “no accident”.
He said Makepeace concocted an “‘implausible story that this was a horrible accident”.
Her previous convictions included stabbing a man unknown to her to the jaw and neck in 2007.
She was also convicted of actual and grievous bodily harm, battery, affray, and assaulting a police officer.
Several of her conctivions were against her partners.
She was released from prison in 2021, and worked at a holiday park before becoming a manager at a shopping centre.
Senior Crown Prosecutor Rachel Worthington, of CPS Mersey-Cheshire, said: “Aurin Makepeace stabbed Steven Rothwell and then left him to die alone. She made no attempt to get any medical help for him.
“The reasons why she murdered him are known only to her. The jury have seen through Makepeace’s layers of lies.
“The Crown Prosecution Service would like to thank the many witnesses in this case that have helped us bring Makepeace to justice for this brutal murder.
“The CPS would also like to take this opportunity to offer our condolences the family and friends of Mr Rothwell at this very difficult time.”
She will be sentenced at a later date.
