A MAN has been jailed for life after brutally murdering his former partner and her son, who used to live in Worle.

Appearing at Oxford Crown Court on Monday, Michael Kelly, aged 46, of Hatch Road, Swindon, admitted murdering Sally Cox and Martin Faulkner with an axe. He will serve a minimum of 30 years behind bars after pleading guilty to two counts of murder and causing grievous bodily harm.

Kelly apparently snapped because he could not deal with the crumbling of his relationship with Ms Cox, who moved out of The Larches in Worle in 2006.

Wearing a gruesome horror mask, Kelly used an axe to kill the 43-year-old and her 22-year-old son Martin Faulkner at the house they shared in Banbury, Oxfordshire, on December 13.

Detectives believe Ms Cox’s daughter Amy, aged 19 at the time of the killings, and another girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, would also have fallen victim to Kelly had they not managed to escape while the attacks were going on.

Amy jumped from a first-floor bedroom window, suffering serious injuries as a result, after her brother stepped between her and Kelly.

In a statement issued through police after the case, relatives of the victims described their deaths as a ‘sad and meaningless loss’.