Man pokes Facebook profile changing wife with cleaver

By Davey Winder
Saturday, 18 October 2008 16:48

Networking

Most Facebook users laugh off the old chestnut of 'I have just poked your wife' but one man didn't see the funny side when his missus changed her profile status to single... 

The sheer size of Facebook, together with its 'whole world in one place' feeling, means that we are used to reading odd tales that emerge from within the social networking realm. The advertising for James Bond spies and the banning of Yoda are par for the course.

Indeed, stories such as the 102 year old Facebook Frisbee Queen or even the notion of Facebook the Movie hardly batter an eyelid these days.

However, when you read about a man killing his wife with a meat cleaver over some Facebook inspired grievance, you cannot fail to sit up and pay attention.

It would appear that Wayne Forrester from London had moved out of the family home, and within days his wife changed her relationship status from married to single on Facebook.

An Old Bailey judge heard how Forrester cracked when he spotted this and drove to her home where he attacked her with a meat cleaver as she slept.

The attack was so brutal that the court heard he beat her and tore clumps of her hair out before stabbing her in the head, neck, stomach and arms.

All the time his six year old daughter was left cowering in another room. Forrester was said to be high on cocaine and fuelled with booze at the time.

Jailing him for life, Judge Brian Barker said that Forrester had "committed a terrible act" with "no possible excuse or justification."

In his statement to police Forrester had claimed that his wife had "posted messages on an internet website telling everyone she had left me and was looking to meet other men."