Bedfordshire Man Murdered Ex-Partner By Strangling Her, Setting Her On Fire After Asking Her To Pole Dance

A Bedfordshire man who killed his ex-girlfriend after arranging for her to do a pole dance for him was sentenced Wednesday.

Habib Jackson, 32, was handed a life sentence at St Albans Crown Court, for the murder of Louise Rump, 29, at her home in Kensworth, reported Luton Today. Before he is considered for release, he will serve a minimum of 23 years. Jackson, who had already served one year and 197 days on remand, could be considered for parole after he serves another 21 years and 168 days, said Judge Michael Kay, according to BBC.

Kay noted that Rump was a single mother of two kids. He said that Jackson had an "obsession with her" and he had a "controlling, violent nature." The judge added that the two children "will now have to live with the knowledge that, while they were at school, their mother was brutally strangled or smothered to death and her body was set on fire."

The judge said that whatever her motives were for seeing Jackson, he had no respect for her. He noted that Jackson's "primitive and narcissistic ego was only concerned with how many conquests you could achieve, whether for money or through what only you perceived as your charm.”

On Oct. 16, 2020, Rump had agreed to the dance for Jackson at her flat in Kensworth, but she was strangled and her body was set on fire. Firefighters found her body at the foot of her bed. They had been called out by neighbors when they saw smoke coming from her flat, reported Daily Mail.

Jackson had made a "deal" with her, said prosecutor David Matthew. He said that Rump was going to dance for him "in underwear he selected," but that "deal went badly wrong." The prosecutor added that she had been "killed by asphyxia."

Matthew said that there was signs of an "attack with bruising on her face, her left hand, wrist and pelvis," and that the fire was a "quite deliberate attempt to destroy the traces her attacker might have left." Before driving off, Jackson was reportedly seen getting rid of a bloodstained jumper and a cardboard box not far from the crime scene.

Jackson denied murder, but he was convicted by a jury.