A man has been jailed for life for murdering his partner in Chorley last year.

At 2.15am on May 26, 2023, Jason Gowen, 27, called 999 to report that his partner, Fiona Robinson, had stopped breathing. She was pronounced dead at the scene at a house in Chorley.

A post-mortem examination revealed she had injuries consistent with a violent and sustained assault which included nine rib fractures, bruising, and abrasions all over her face and body plus injuries consistent with strangulation.

Gowen gave paramedics and police a variety of contradictory explanations for her injuries, including that she had returned home from a night out with them on May 24. He initially told officers he thought Fiona had had her drink spiked while out and had become ill.

CCTV captured Ms Robinson before she returned home after her night out with no injuries. Footage found on Gowen’s tablet from the morning of May 25 showed her now with injuries to her back, left side and left arm.

Medical evidence revealed that the injuries had been inflicted upon her in between the early hours of the May 25 until the early hours of the May 26.

In October last year, Gowen admitted murdering her.

Gowen had previously pleaded guilty to assaulting a former partner in 2020. He was on bail awaiting sentence in relation to those offences when he killed Fiona Robinson, who had been living in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.

Today (January 17) he has been sentenced for all offences to life imprisonment with a 20 year minimum term.

In a statement read in court, her two teenage children, said: “Emotionally, a massive hole has been left in our lives and our hearts. It's as if we have a constant physical ache in our chests.

“I can be sat on a bus and hear children shout ‘mum’, or walk down the street and hear a child call out ‘mum', and I realise that I'll never be able to say that again myself.”

Tom Snape, senior crown prosecutor for CPS North West said: “Jason Gowen clearly poses a significant risk to women. He brutally murdered a woman he was in a relationship with whilst awaiting sentence for offences against a previous partner.

“Initially he denied he was responsible for murder and concocted various lies to evade prosecution, but when faced with the overwhelming evidence against him, including medical evidence, CCTV and footage he recorded himself, he eventually pleaded guilty.

“Our thoughts are with the family of Fiona Robinson and all those who have been affected by Gowen’s violent actions.”

Gowen and Fiona had been in a relationship for 15 months, after Fiona moved to Chorley from Barrow-in-Furness to live with him. During that time there were a number of concerns raised by friends and colleagues of Fiona in relation to injuries that they had observed and also the control they believed Gowen to have over her.

Some of these led to reports to police and subsequent investigations and a disclosure under Clare’s Law was made to Fiona.

This revealed that Gowen had previously been the subject of domestic abuse reports with a number of previous partners and that he had also been charged with an offence of assault on a previous partner which was proceeding through the court process.

That case would not reach its conclusion at court before the murder of Fiona Robinson, and Gowen has been sentenced in relation to those offences today too.

Fiona’s family have since spoken out about the impact of Fiona’s death – and are urging anyone in an abusive relationship to speak out and get help.

Domestic abuse is classed as any incident or pattern of incidents that includes emotional, physical, sexual and financial abuse as well as controlling behaviour.

In December, Lancashire Police launched our #noexcuseforabuse campaign.

Agencies and organisations that can help those living in abusive relationships can be found at https://orlo.uk/4bhDU