Denbigh man Jason Cooper, 26, faces a life sentence after being convicted of the murder of Laura Stuart following a brutal stabbing in Denbigh town centre.

The jury at Mold Crown Court took less than an hour to unanimously found him guilty of her murder and wounding a man who went to her aid, with intent.

There was applause from the public gallery when the jury left court.

Mr Justice Picken simply told Cooper that he would sentence him as speedily as possible, either next week or the following week.

He remanded him in custody and it will be on the next occasion that he will be told the minimum term he must serve.

Cooper had become obsessed with Laura, 33, a mother of two, and would not cope without her.

He had become paranoid and would accuse men he saw speaking to or drinking with her of having an affair.

The court heard that of course after the split she was free to see who she liked and went out in the pubs of Denbigh, socialised, and was trying to get on with her life.

But her life was cut short when Cooper stalked her, waited for her in the early hours one August morning, and brutally stabbed her as she walked the short distance to her home from The Golden Lion in Denbigh’s Back Row.

He rushed at her and stabbed her and a man who went to intervene.

Cooper denied waiting for her, claimed it was a chance meeting, that he had the knife to harm himself although clearly he had not done so.

Family and friends are said to be devastated that throughout his nine day trial at Mold Crown Court he set out to attack her character in a bid to save his own skin and to try and get away with manslaughter.

They did not recognise the 33-year-old Laura they knew and loved from the descriptions given by Cooper to the jury.

It was In the early hours of August 12 last year that Cooper brutally attacked his former partner in the street close to her home in the centre of Denbigh.

Prosecuting barrister David Elias QC told how he had taken a kitchen knife to the scene and was lying in wait for her as she made her way home from a night out with friends.

He ran towards her, and stabbing her to the head, back and chest with the knife.

One of the men walking home, David Roberts, bravely stepped in to help as Cooper stabbed her repeatedly with the knife.

He grabbed Cooper by the shoulders and they grappled but David Roberts was stabbed to the shoulder, elbow and ear.

When Roberts fell to the floor Cooper returned his attention to Laura, kicking her to the chest and to the face as she lay bleeding on the floor, fighting for her life.

It was described by David Roberts’ father Gareth as if he was kicking a full force penalty shot.

Cooper remained at the scene for a few minutes, telling Mr Roberts senior: “I said I was going to do it and I did it”.

He then walked away, disposed of the knife and sent a chilling text to a friend confessing to what he had done which said “I just murdered Laura”.

Cooper his phone but it was soon recovered – but the knife from his kitchen block at home was never found.

In evidence Cooper claimed that he was so drunk that he could not remember what had happened or why he had carried out the knife attack, which was captured on CCTV.

At the scene he was calm and in control and made a number of admissions to officers which were recorded on their body cam.

“There you go. It’s not one of those psychopathic things where you go nuts for no reason. There’s a reason for it. She thought she was going to live her life and leave me in the lurch and she’d be as happy as Larry, fu.. about and do whatever she likes. Not on my watch,” he said coldly.

Laura died at Stoke hospital due to the severity of her injuries on the evening of August 13.. The injuries to David Roberts were treated successfully.

The defence had sought a manslaughter verdict suggesting he had an abnormality of mind brought about by alcoholism.