Solihull father Gary Fisher jailed for murder of teenage daughter
A Solihull father who brutally stabbed his daughter to death had convictions for knife attacks and violence going back to his teens, a court has heard.
Gary Fisher, 48, turned on teenage daughter Chanelle Sasha Jones as she sat in the passenger seat of his car in August last year.
Fisher then drove around west Wales with the blood-soaked corpse of the 17-year-old in his car for 10 hours until stopped by police.
A jury took just one hour to find him guilty of murder after a lengthy trial at Swansea Crown Court which concluded on March 10.
Mr Justice Lloyd Jones jailed him for life on Monday and ordered that he serve a minimum 20 year term before being eligible for parole.
Passing sentence he told Fisher: "You have been convicted of the murder of your daughter Sasha Jones.
"This is the most appalling waste of a young life. A pointless death which will leave a permanent shadow on the lives of her family and friends and the effects and knowledge of what you have done should shame you for the rest of your life."
Fisher stood nodding his head in apparent agreement with the judge's comments as sentence was passed at Swansea Crown Court.
As he was taken away he nodded to the judge and said "Thank you."
Earlier the judge had heard that Fisher, of Kents Close, Solihull, had a violent past which went back to the age of 17.
It included a knife attack, a hammer attack and the killing of a cat and the removal of its head to intimidate a female victim.
Christopher Clee QC, prosecuting, outlined Fisher's previous convictions for the court.
The first was for actual bodily harm and possessing a weapon for which he was fined at Solihull Magistrates' Court in August 1979 aged 17.
A year later he attacked a girl with a 35in (89cm) lathe chain he had been using as a belt, convicted of wounding and jailed for three months.
In February 1985 he was convicted of three counts of criminal damage and one of theft relating to the family of a previous girlfriend.
In the same year he was jailed for 12 months after "taking offence against a young woman".
Mr Clee said Fisher began by painting white crosses on the front door of the woman's home.
He then stole a headstone from a local graveyard and left it outside her house.
Mr Clee added: "He also put the head of a cat he had killed outside the house."
He said that while in prison Fisher was at some point transferred to Ashworth Secure Mental Health Unit and was eventually released some time in 1987.
Two years later he was given a three-month suspended sentence at Solihull Magistrates' Court for a wounding incident.
