Beast gets 19 years for beating partner to death

A MAN who beat his vulnerable partner "again and again and again until he killed her" has been told he will spend a minimum of 19 years behind bars for her murder.

- BY ASHLEIGH MCDONALD

John David Scott, 36, inflicted multiple injuries upon his 32-year-old partner Natasha Melendez, a mother of four, in prior assaults before the final and fatal attack in March 2020.

This occurred in her Finch Gardens home in Lisburn, Co Antrim - a place where she should have felt safe, said the sentencing judge at Belfast Crown Court yesterday.

Prosecution barrister Richard Weir KC said Ms Melendez was born in Venezuela and moved to Northern Ireland in 2009.

She had four children, one of whom was fathered by Scott, whose address was given as Maghaberry Prison. All were in care at the time of her death.