A jealous ex who murdered a father-of-six after she found his Tinder profile on Christmas Day has been jailed.
Kirsty Carless, 33, plunged a knife into 31-year-old Louis Price’s heart in the early hours of December 25, 2024, in an attack fuelled by cocaine, alcohol, jealousy and anger.
She had been drinking double vodka and cokes with a male friend at the pub before going back to his home to have sex multiple times.
But she erupted into a furious rage at around 1.30am, when a friend sent her a screenshot of Mr Price’s Tinder profile. Carless armed herself with a kitchen knife and ordered a taxi to his parents’ house in Norton Canes to confront him.
Harrowing CCTV footage shows her storming up towards the house and ‘stalking’ Mr Price around the garden while waving the knife towards his face.
Seconds later the taxi driver heard a ‘very loud and prolonged’ scream before Carless emerged from the house ‘anxious and sweating’, having left Mr Price to die on the conservatory floor.
She was sentenced to life with a minimum of 25 years in front of a packed public gallery today by Judge Mr Justice Choudhury, who said she had ‘destroyed the life of a young man and his family’.
Kirsty Carless, 33, (pictured) plunged a knife into 31-year-old Louis Price’s heart in the early hours of December 25, 2024, in an attack fuelled by cocaine and alcohol
CCTV footage shows the moment Carless chased her ex around the garden with a knife before stabbing him through the heart on Christmas Day
Louis Price (pictured) was considered by police to be ‘at very high risk of domestic abuse’
After killing her ex, Carless fled to her parents’ house where she admitted what she had done and called 999. Bodycam footage of her arrest shows the remorseless killer sitting on a sofa as a police officer places her in handcuffs.
She pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denied murdering Mr Price, instead claiming he had taken money from her and she planned to destroy the caravan he was living in.
She was jailed for life with a minimum of 25 years after being convicted of murder and possessing an offensive weapon in a public place.
She was also found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm over a previous incident, but cleared of intentional strangulation.
Carless showed no reaction in the dock as Mr Justice Choudhury passed his sentence.
He said the defendant had shown ‘no remorse’ for what she had done and instead falsely claimed she could not remember what had happened.
The 33-year-old previously said she had no recollection of stabbing her ex and was ‘not a violent person’.
‘I remember being in the conservatory, that was it the next thing I knew I was in the kitchen,’ she told the court.
‘Louis was sat on the floor. Then I panicked and ran off.’
Carless (pictured) has been jailed for life with a minimum of 25 years for the murder
Carless was seen ‘stalking’ Mr Price around the garden while menacingly waving the knife towards his face
Pictured: Police tape around Mr Price’s parents’ home in Norton Canes, near Cannock, Staffordshire, after the attack
At the time of the tragedy, Carless was on police bail after allegedly strangling Mr Price in November 2024.
Mr Price had previously told a friend he was scared of his on-off partner and believed ‘something bad would happen to him’.
A neighbour once called police after spotting Carless hitting Mr Price in the ribs with a metal pole as he tried to protect his head.
In a witness statement to police, Mr Price said the relationship had been ‘abusive’.
He added: ‘She has constantly been abusive towards me, stopped me doing things I enjoy like football, and physically abused me.’
