Father, 30, is jailed for 40 years after being found guilty of murdering his girlfriend, 23, while he was on BAIL for murdering his two small children six years earlier
- Jordan Monaghan, 30, of Blackburn, found guilty of three counts of murder
- Found guilty of killing daughter Ruby in 2013 and son Logan eight months later
- Monaghan also found guilty of murdering his girlfriend Evie Adams in 2019
- Monaghan was quizzed over deaths of two children but was released by police
- But he was arrested again after giving overdose over tramadol to Ms Adams
A digger driver who smothered his newborn baby girl and toddler son to death in separate murders and astonishingly evaded justice for six years before later killing his new partner while on bail for their murders has today been jailed for at least forty years.
Triple killer Jordan Monaghan, 30, a manipulative and controlling gambling addict, obstructed the airways of his helpless children in separate murders in Blackburn, Lancs, in January and August, 2013.
After evading just for six years, and while on bail for the murder of his two children, he killed his new girlfriend, 23-year-old Evie Adams, with a deadly cocktail of prescription drugs in October 2019.
During a court case which laid bare the struggles police and prosecutors had in bringing Monaghan to justice, it was revealed officers had arrested and interviewed six years earlier under caution after the death of Logan.
But they did not have enough evidence to charge him with either of the murders, and he was released on police bail.
After further information came to light involving the collapse of another child, who cannot be named, police reviewed the deaths of Ruby, aged 24 days, and Logan, aged 21 months, and in 2018, Monaghan was arrested.
But astonishingly he was then allowed on police bail, with the investigation appearing to have moved little further ahead. While on bail and free to walk the streets Monaghan killed Ms Adams.
Even after her death, Monaghan was still allowed free once more, with police taking a staggering 15 months to finally arrest him against in January 2021, raising questions for Lancashire Police and the CPS as to how he was allowed to continue to evade justice for so long.
The murder trial heard from a host of experts that the medical evidence regarding the children’s deaths was complicated and contradictory, including at the inquest, where Ruby’s death was attributed to bronchiolitis and Logan’s cause of death was ‘unascertained’.
But today, after a 10 week trial and a 26 hour deliberation by jury members at Preston Crown Court, Monaghan was finally convicted of three murders and two counts of attempted murder.
He was sentenced to three life orders, with a minimum term of at least 40 years.
Monaghan was also sentenced to 27 years on each count of attempted murder, though his actual sentence will be life with a minimum term of 40 years.
The court heard how Monaghan had repeatedly and secretly harmed his two children to make them appear sick every time his former partner, Laura Gray, the children’s biological mother, had attempted to end their relationship.
Ms Gray, the 28-year-old mother of the children, could be heard weeping in the public gallery as the verdicts were given.
Today, in a heartbreaking statement read out at Monaghan’s sentencing, Ms Gray said: ‘All I ever wanted was to be a mum. I wanted to give children the love and opportunities I never had growing up. Jordan knew how much I wanted that.
