True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

 

This post is going to be a tough one to get through, I may as well warn you from the get-go. This case is very difficult to take and one that shocked as well as horrified and outraged the people of the UK when the story was splashed across the newspapers. The horrific story of a millionaire who'd tortured his young girlfriend and left her to die in a pool of her own blood, it was the stuff of nightmares. What added to the horror and anger was the ridiculous sentence that was handed out to this sick, depraved individual. When we talk about privilege and the status and benefits that money can afford you (especially when it comes to getting away with crimes) this is what we mean. 

2016 doesn't seem that long ago and to be honest, it isn't. Maybe I'm just used to writing about cases that happened a decade or two ago but this feels recent. I can imagine for the loved ones of Natalie Connolly, the beautiful young woman who died at the hands of John Broadhurst, 2016 feels like it was just yesterday. This horrible case happened in 2016 but it still stirs up anger to this day, as it always will and with good reason. 

I'm going to be sharing some very disturbing details in this post and I will try my best to be as sensitive about the circumstances and to also be as respectful to the victim as much as possible. 

Natalie Connolly was a beautiful girl with a shock of long black hair and blue eyes, that stunning combination with a lovely figure and beautiful smile that caught many an eye when she walked in the room. She was a twin who's sister shared her beauty and they were both so very close. Natalie was a laugh a minute kind of girl, fun to be around and could make friends easily with anyone. She was a single mother and always did her best to make sure her daughter, Madison had everything she needed. She was a very hands on mum and she doted on her little girl and Madison idolised her mother. 

Times could be hard as a young single mother in her mid twenties but that didn't stop Natalie from dreaming and always striving for the best in life. She knew how to let her hair down but she wasn't a big drinker, she just loved to go out with her friends, have a laugh and a good dance. 

It was in a pub that she bumped into a handsome, well dressed man by the name of John. There was an instant attraction between the pair. John was in his late 30s but he had a charm about him and they seemed to have a good laugh together, they seemed to just click and it wasn't long before phone numbers were exchanged and they started seeing more of each other. 

Natalie was attracted to John from the moment she saw him in the pub and had no idea of what his background was or what he did for a living but the more she got to know him he revealed that he was actually a multi-millionaire and that was soon evident when he splashed out on beautiful, expensive gifts for her. Fancy restaurants were a regular thing and his beautiful big house was like something out of a movie. Natalie was completely bowled over by him and his gentlemanly ways. 

The trouble was, John wasn't the lovely gentleman that he painted himself out to be. John had skeletons in the closet and it soon became apparent that John had three children of his own, which was fine but he was actually in a relationship with his pregnant fiancee who was expecting their second child together. It's difficult to know what Natalie was thinking and I'm not going to assume or suggest anything but she was aware of the situation and the fact is, John and Natalie were having an affair until he finally walked out on his fiancee to be with Natalie full time. 

I'm not going to judge the situation, I'm just telling you the facts of the case and you are free to make up your own mind about events that took place. It was inevitable that Natalie was going to have some anxiety about this relationship because here was a man who had proven that he was the type who could get bored very easily, the type of man who could cast you to the side at a moments notice if he got fed up with you and even scarier, it didn't matter if you were pregnant with his child, he could still walk out on you for someone else. Not a great way to start any relationship but things grew very quickly between Natalie and John. Within weeks she had moved into his house. Who could blame her in all reality? To go from struggling to make ends meet, to the chance to live in this beautiful big house and have this luxury lifestyle, I'm sure a lot of us would but under very different circumstances (ie, with a man we knew we could 100% trust).

John got on great with Madison and his kids took to Natalie and Madison too, it all seemed to just fit into place for the couple and everyone always commented on how happy they looked together, it was all like a fairytale. John arranged for Natalie to be pampered at beauty salons, had his personal driver take her to and from appointments and gave her a credit card with an allowance so that she could buy whatever she wanted. It all sounded like a dream.....but there was a catch...A BIG ONE!

John and Natalie hardly knew each other when she moved in, it was a relationship very much based on lust. They'd had conversations and shared some intimate details of their lives over dinner but it's a different story when you live with someone 24/7 as Natalie was to find out. 

John enjoyed rough sex, very rough sex, way beyond Fifty Shades of Grey type of thing. He liked to hurt women, he liked to leave cuts and bruises and Natalie was having a difficult time trying to cope with this. Suddenly the fancy lifestyle wasn't looking so much like a fairytale after all because the lovely restaurants and red roses came with a price. She gritted her teeth and tried to bare with it when he wanted to indulge in these hardcore sex sessions, she did what she could to please him because she was scared of him becoming bored and leaving her, just like he had done with his pregnant ex-fiancee. 

She didn't want to leave him and go back to the life she had before, she was happy in the relationship apart from this aspect of it. She shared her concerns with her sister and mother and showed them the bruises and cuts.  She explained that it was done during these hardcore, kinky sex sessions. She told them that John was a great lover in the bedroom but he could be very extreme at inflicting pain and she was struggling to deal with it. 

Natalie was stuck between a rock and a hard place with the relationship because she wanted to be with John and continue the lifestyle but she wasn't happy with the sexual side of things. It was clear things had moved too fast with the relationship because the pair had started to 'talk' to other people. Natalie began texting other men and John was contacting other women. Not the most ideal of situations. 

For John, everything had to be his way or the high way and although he was doing his usual routine of treating women like crap, he had the audacity to be furious when he found out (unbeknown to Natalie) that she had been talking to other men via text messages. For John it was ok for him to do what he did but some one giving him a taste of his own medicine? not happening. 

He kept his mouth shut though and acted normal even suggesting that they go out for a few drinks on the 18th of December 2016 before seeing a football match & then dinner in the evening. He bought Natalie drinks and gave her cocaine which he also took himself, but to a smaller extent. He'd done similar before almost as if to 'loosen' her up a little before he took her home and carried out his sickening acts. One wonders if Natalie actually drank as much as she could on these occasions in an attempt to try and numb herself for what she knew she would have to deal with later when he got her home and into the bedroom. 

He always made sure that he was tipsy but not enough to lose control of his senses, after all, he wanted to be in complete control and able to fully enjoy what he was going to do to Natalie during these sex sessions. 

On this particular day though, there was a sinister and evil streak that was lurking within John Broadhurst and after the pair had enjoyed their day and finished their dinner at one of their favourite restaurants, John had his driver pick them up. 

It was clear that Natalie was heavily intoxicated, the meal had done nothing to sober her up or soak up some of the booze. When they arrived at the house and Natalie stumbled out of the car, she left her phone behind. A glass of water and straight to bed to sleep it off is what Natalie needed but John Broadhurst had other ideas. The driver came back with Natalie's phone and gave it to John, it's unclear if he'd had another look through Natalie's messages but what we do know is that he had very sick and evil intentions for Natalie that night. 

It seemed as well as humiliating women, leaving them when they were pregnant, cheating on them, hurting them, having violent sex and spying on them wasn't enough, John didn't seem to have any issue with women being highly intoxicated and pretty much out of it, he just carried on. 

Natalie was a mess, we know this because of the toxicology reports and autopsy that was performed later on. She was in no fit state to do a thing but there was a deep anger in John Broadhurst and he was going to do whatever he wanted and to hell with the consequences. He forced himself on Natalie and made sure that he caused as much pain and damage to her as possible. Now I'm going to share the horrible details of what was done and it is very upsetting so please keep that in mind.

As well as punching her and abusing her body, he put bleach in her face and forced a bottle of carpet cleaner (spray nozzle first) into her vagina before twisting it and ripping it out. After he was done with this sickening torture, he left Natalie lying in a pool of her own blood at the bottom of the stairs, he left her naked in a disrespectful manner with her skirt pulled up around her waist. He just left her there dying and simply went to bed. 

A few hours later he woke up and by this time, Natalie had passed away from her horrific injuries (40 horrific injuries). John called for an ambulance and put a bit of an act on but nothing that was really convincing. What really showed even more the sickening mind of this man was his utter disrespect towards Natalie. Without a tear in his eye or shake in his voice he told the dispatcher that he'd tried CPR but that Natalie was ''AS DEAD AS A DOUGHNUT''.

There's just no words to describe that kind of evil and from the moment that paramedics declared Natalie officially dead to the moment they put her body in the back of the ambulance, John just stood there without any shred of care, upset or feeling. 

He was of course arrested and instead of crying his eyes out, holding his hands up and confessing to what he did, he proceeded to tell a pack of lies about how it had all been rough sex that went a bit too far!

He claimed that Natalie wanted the whole thing, she asked for it all and he was just this innocent guy that followed her orders, she asked for him to hurt her, to punch her and begged him to force the carpet cleaner bottle into her vagina apparently and when he ripped it out with all the blood pouring out, he claimed that she said she was fine and that she wanted more of the same. It was ludicrous and just pure evil. 

He said they'd done this plenty of times and there was never any issues, he said that Natalie was into all kinds of rough sex. When asked about why he left her half naked at the bottom of the stairs, he said he did that plenty of times before and it had been fine, he said he never gave her any blankets because the house was warm enough. 

(John Broadhurst. Picture credit: The Mirror)

He never showed any remorse or expressed any guilt for what he had done, instead he tried to shift all the blame on to Natalie and to everyone's shock and horror, it worked! He was given the most pathetic sentence.... He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was given 3 years and 8 months of which he served 22 months. 

You read that right.....John Broadhurst is a free man, probably sat in his livingroom right now with a cup of tea without a care in the world! Utter disgrace and what a joke of a legal system that we have and that's not the first time that I've said that. 

I wish I had some good news to say but I don't, he basically got away with it and with his money and everything, he's probably not even in England. It's also scary to think that he's probably still carrying out these horrible acts on women but probably being a bit more careful about it now? He should be in prison for the rest of his life! The mind goes crazy thinking about what the Judge must have been thinking when that joke of a sentence was handed down and to let him walk out of those prison gates so early too. 

I'd only heard about this case a few weeks ago and it stuck with me so I had to write about it. I think it sticks with anyone who hears about it, just so horrible and doesn't make any sense. 

I've been thinking about Natalie, Madison, her twin sister Gemma and her family this week, my heart goes out to them. I've also been thinking about John Broadhurst and what a monster he is. A chill goes down the spine to think that he's out there right now, he could be anywhere, no woman is safe from him. 

Further reading & Sources:

- John Broadhurst | Article: Birmingham Mail

- We Can't Consent To This | Website

- John Broadhurst | Article: Independent

- Natalie Connolly | Article: Mirror

-  Natalie Connolly | Article: Daily Mail

- Natalie Connolly | Wikipedia

- Natalie Connolly | Article: The Sun

- Natalie Connolly | Article: Express & Star

RIP Natalie x

I've researched this case and gone over the details many times and it never gets easier. It sickens me as a stranger so I can't imagine what Natalie's family must feel. Natalie is not to blame for what happened, she was a young woman who fell for a guy who she thought could provide her and her daughter with a better life. She was in over her head with a dangerous and experienced man. Yes, she should have left but the lifestyle and his charming ways turned her head, there was no way she could have foreseen any of this. It was all a fairytale, how could it have ended up such a horrible and horrendous nightmare? We'll never know what was going through John Broadhurst's mind and to be honest, do we ever want to know? Rough sex is one thing but to get off on actually torturing women to the point they are covered in bruises and blood? He's a very sick, sick man. It goes to show you that money is not everything when it comes to finding the perfect guy. he might be able to buy you a fancy dinner at a posh restaurant but behind closed doors he could be a complete and utter monster as we've seen in this case. 

Thank you as always for joining me in this harrowing case, I hope you are ok and be sure to have a cup of tea and take a breather after reading this, I know I will after I finish editing this post.

Take care of yourselves and I hope to see you on my Socials as well as my next post x