[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
A woman in England was brutally murdered, allegedly by her ex-fiancé — just after she arranged a birthday dinner celebration for him.
This week, the UK’s Guildford Crown Court is consumed with the trial of James Cartwright. He is accused of killing his former fiancée, 54-year-old Samantha Mickleburgh (pictured above) after she set up a 60th birthday celebration for him last April.
According to multiple outlets, including BBC News and The Times, Mickleburgh had put together the birthday celebration because she didn’t want James to feel lonely on his birthday. So the Axminster, Devon native arranged a stay with her ex at the high-end Pennyhill Park Hotel in Bagshot, Surrey. But by the next morning, she was dead.
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A week after her death, Surrey Police said they’d arrested Cartwright. In a press release, the cops confirmed they had charged him with “murder and controlling and coercive behavior.” They later brought a rape charge against Cartwright, too, per the BBC.
Now, Cartwright is on trial to face the charges. And in court this week, prosecutor Louise Oakley has been detailing the terrible timeline of events. Per the Telegraph, Oakely said in court that the duo first met in 2022, and their relationship was “somewhat of a whirlwind” from the very beginning. The prosecutor asserted:
“By the summer of 2023, he had moved into her home. By September, they were engaged. But Samantha was far from happy.”
The prosecutor said Cartwright was “insecure,” “clingy,” “suffocating,” and even “child-like” around Mickleburgh, per that outlet. So, Samantha eventually got fed up. By February of 2024, she had forced Cartwright to move out of her house, and she ended things for good. Oakley noted:
“She didn’t wish him any ill, but she no longer wanted to live with him and no longer wanted to be in a relationship with him.”
Well, Cartwright’s birthday came around two months after that, in April. And according to the prosecutor, Samantha “felt bad” for her ex because she didn’t think he had anyone else to spend time with on that day.
So, Mickleburgh arranged a six-course tasting menu dinner at Pennyhill Park Hotel’s restaurant, The Latymer. Nice, right? Well, restaurant staffers later told investigators that Mickleburgh “looked more and more sleepy and at points her eyes were closed and she looked like she was sleeping” as the dinner went on, Oakley said in court on Tuesday. Uh…
By 10:30 p.m., the couple had left the restaurant. They were spotted on surveillance camera footage walking together back to their room around that time. Chillingly, Oakley summed up that CCTV footage sighting like this:
“This is the last time Samantha Mickleburgh was seen alive.”
Ten hours later, around 8:30 the next morning, Cartwright called emergency services in a panic. He claimed he’d woken up to find Samantha dead in bed next to him. The prosecutor, however, pushed back on that. Oakley argued at the trial:
“He had most likely killed her with his own bare hands applying manual pressure around her neck, extinguishing her life.”
To back up her claim, Oakley pointed to a post-mortem exam done on Mickleburgh’s body. Multiple outlets reported that exam showed evidence of a significant head injury and fractures to bones in the victim’s neck — injuries Oakley said were consistent with death by strangulation. The prosecutor argued:
“There were only two people in this room — and she couldn’t have and didn’t strangle herself.”
Cartwright had told cops after his arrest last year that the pair had consensual sex before falling asleep in each other’s arms. But Oakley painted a very different picture at the trial.
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First off, she accused Cartwright of relentlessly bombarding his ex with text messages in the weeks leading up to the dinner. And then, the prosecutor dropped the bomb: Mickleburgh told friends and family in the days before her death that the birthday dinner was going to be the final time she would EVER see James. Oakley said:
“She had intended to tell him that this was the last time they would see each other. Is this what caused James Cartwright’s explosion of violence? He had started to lose control of his relationship with Samantha because of his own controlling and coercive ways.”
Samantha’s son Alexander even took the stand to confirm the prosecutor’s claims in that realm. He said that on the morning of April 13, 2024 — one day before Samantha’s death at the hotel — she told Alexander that this was going to be it. Her son said on the stand:
“She made it clear this was the last time she was going to see him.”
And then, 24 hours later, she was dead. Wow.
This is all pretty convincing. We’ll have to see if Cartwright comes up with any defense to the charges at all.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, help is available. Consider calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233, or text START to 88788, or go to https://www.thehotline.org/.
For more information on violence against women, go to https://www.justice.gov/ovw/resources-for-survivors.
[Image via Surrey Police]
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