For sale, Victorian mansion blighted by horror: £2million property empty seven years after knife killing

By JAMES TOZER



House of Horrors: Oakleigh in Bowdon, Cheshire, has fallen into disrepair and is failing to sell because of its grim past



As a magnificent five-bedroom Victorian mansion in two acres of land, you would expect this family home to be snapped up for a premium as soon as it went on the market.

But now it lies deserted, with smashed or boarded-up windows, dozens of tyres piled up along one side and its lawns turned to scorched grass.

The macabre reason for its eerie state is that it has lain empty since its wealthy owner stabbed his wife to death in a frenzied attack in the master bedroom nearly seven years ago.



The house's current state is a sad reflection on the days before Christopher Lumsden killed his wife there in 2005



Lawyer Christopher Lumsden knifed his 53-year-old wife Alison around 30 times after she announced she was leaving him for a family friend. He slashed her face and neck so many times that a pathologist could not count the precise number of blows.

He served just two and a half years in jail after being found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, claiming he had a depressive illness.

The imposing home’s notoriety meant it remained empty and crumbling, and on his release Lumsden sold it to developers for £1.4million.



Manicured: But the gravel drive and perfect lawns are now just a distant memory



Now the property – Oakleigh, in Bowdon, Cheshire – is on the market for potential buyers prepared to restore it to its former glory.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the estate agent’s details fail to mention its grisly past.

But the overgrown tennis courts and demolished conservatory eloquently tell the story of its decline from the days when Lumsden and his wife held lavish garden parties for friends from the local tennis club.

‘It’s such a shame what has happened to Oakleigh but some of us are not exactly surprised given its grim history,’ a neighbour said yesterday.



Christopher Lumsden (left) was convicted of the manslaughter of his wife, Alison, (pictured right) on the grounds of diminished responsibility and served two and a half years in prison



‘However magnificent the house was, a woman died horribly inside and it seems the scars of what happened there will not go away.

‘There were piles of tyres in the driveway, half the windows are smashed or boarded-up and there is graffiti everywhere. It’s become an eyesore.’

The house is on the market for ‘offers in excess of £2million’. Built around the 1880s on the site of a former Roman Catholic boys’ school, it comes with two acres of land plus a derelict neighbouring house which could be demolished and replaced by two new properties.

A new owner would also have permission to knock down the orangery and extend the basement for an indoor heated swimming pool. Now 58, Lumsden is believed to be living in Derbyshire and working as a business consultant.

He had to go to court to win the right to nearly £1million from his wife’s will – convicted killers cannot normally inherit money from their victims.



Deadly weapon: The 12cm knife that was used by Lumsden to kill his wife



Several days later, Lumsden – who had muscular dystrophy – attacked her when she returned from an evening with her lover. He recalled to Manchester Crown Court how Alison was sat at the dressing table in their bedroom taking off her make-up after telling him she ‘couldn’t live with a cripple’.

He told the jury: ‘I found myself getting out of bed with the word “cripple” burning in my brain and grabbing the knife out of the drawer next to the bed.

‘I walked round the foot of the bed, up behind her – she saw me and started to stand and turn. I brought the knife and went blank.’

Lumsden was cleared of murder but jailed for five years for manslaughter. He was released on licence in September 2007.



source: dailymail