Dr Thomas Shanks shot nurse Vickie Fletcher 10 times in the back after she dumped him for another man.

Scots-born hospital anaesthetist Dr Thomas Shanks shot nurse Vickie Fletcher 10 times in the back after she dumped him for another man.A judge yesterday ordered Shanks to serve at least 18 years of a life sentence. But because he was originally jailed in 2000 and had already served two years while awaiting trial, he will be able to apply for parole in April 2016.The judge, Mrs Justice Cox, said Shanks would have got more than 30 years if he had been sentenced today.But she was bound by the more lenient sentencing guidelines in force at the time he was convicted.Shanks was in court yesterday because of a law change which forces judges to set minimum terms for lifers.Mrs Justice Cox said he had been convicted on overwhelming evidence of premeditated murder.She said the worst feature of the case was that Shanks shot Vickie, 21, as she was walking away from him. She was still staggering from the first burst of gunfire when he fired a second at closer range.Shanks murdered Vickie on May 7, 1998 outside a pub in Castleford, Yorkshire.He had dated the nurse for three years while they worked together at nearby Pontefract General Infirmary, but Vickie left him for a former patient.Crazed with jealousy, Shanks tracked Vickie and her new man to the pub and confronted them. He then went home for the Kalashnikov, a trophy from his service in the Gulf War, and returned to the scene.Shanks also had an axe, a sheath knife and a baseball bat in his car.He confronted Vickie again outside the pub and shot her down.After the killing, Shanks drove to Glasgow. He was arrested in a phone box in nearby Lennoxtown and two Strathclyde traffic cops were given bravery awards for catching him.Shanks told his trial he was not responsible for his actions when he shot Vickie and claimed his mind had been affected by Gulf war syndrome. But the trial judge said his defence was "spurious".At the Royal Courts of Justice in London yesterday, Mrs Justice Cox rejected claims by the killer's lawyers that his sentence should be cut because of his "mental disorder".
She noted that Shanks had lost his temper and "manhandled" nurses at work several times before the murder. He had been given a final warning from the hospital over the incidents.The judge said Shanks's good behaviour in jail painted "an encouraging picture". But she said his conduct was nowhere near exceptional enough to justify a sentence lower than 18 years.

Posted in: Royal Courts of Justice in London