A FATHER savagely murdered his partner with a knife before smothering his four-year-old son and laying him out on his bed in a bizarre Viking-style ceremony.

James Conan, 65, repeatedly knifed Kirsty O'Connell, 21, because she wanted to end their five-year relationship, Winchester Crown Court heard.

Then he smoked a cigarette, played for half an hour with their son Patrick in his room before taking him to the main bedroom, placing a pillow over the child’s face and suffocating him.

Stewart Jones QC, prosecuting, said: “He then bathed and dressed him before laying him out in his room on his own bed. He laid him out like a little warrior. He was laid out ceremoniously on his bed.”

Mr Jones added that Conan put a torch in the dead child’s hand and placed his favourite toys – a dagger and a gun – and a note he had written for him close by.

“The ritual nature of laying out is bizarre. It’s as if the little boy has been sent off for a journey,” he said.

The court heard that Kirsty had discovered that Conan was having an affair.

They argued and she told him to leave the flat they shared in Woolford Close, Stanmore, Winchester, in August 2007.

Mr Jones said Conan then suffered “paroxysms of jealous and thwarted rage” which exploded into lethal violence.

“His reaction to the dreadful thing he had done then appears to cause him to act to some sort of spurious logic and effectively smother his child to save him from the consequences of the previous act.”

Mr Jones said the two killings were completely different: “Kirsty was found in the sitting room and Patrick, or PJ, in his bedroom.

“Kirsty was killed in a hail of knife blows, 20 in all. Thirteen were in a group on the front of her neck and throat, one severing her jugular vein.”

She also suffered wounds to her hands as she tried to defend herself, as well as bruising, consistent with being punched, and haemorrhaging in her eyes which indicated she was also throttled. The bodies were found when concerned friends and relatives phoned the police. Conan admitted the killings straight away.

The court heard that Kirsty had recently returned to education and was studying for A-levels. She had been accepted at the University of Southampton to study Law in September 2007.

Conan admitted the murder of Kirsty. He denied the murder of Patrick but admitted manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility. The pleas were accepted by the prosecution.

In mitigation, Nigel Lickley QC said that, although the relationship was unusual, Conan had loved both Kirsty and Patrick.

Conan underwent a triple heart bypass last year, delaying the case.

‘Cruelly cut short’ Sentencing yesterday, Mr Justice Royce told Conan that he would be ineligible to apply for parole for at least 16 years. He also jailed him for six years for manslaughter, to run concurrently.

He said: “You are in the autumn of your days. Kirsty and Patrick had their lives stretching out before them – lives which were cruelly and selfishly and unforgivably cut short by you.

“What you did has had a profound and devastating effect on Kirsty’s family. They have to bear the burden of their loss for the rest of their lives and no sentence that this court can pass can begin to compensate them for that.”

Conan showed no emotion as he was led away.