The violent past of 'petty' murderer andrew clark who attacked two exes

Andrew Clark was angry that his bike had not been returned to him. In fact, he was furious. He had lent his friend John Donaldson a mountain bike to cycle to a nearby newsagents in Whale

Hill. Mr Donaldson - who was affectionately known as "Bamber" - returned from Jay's News with bottles of lemonade. But there was some dispute about who owned the bike. All

afternoon, Clark, 39, retaliated by repeatedly driving to the home of Bernadette McElvaney, in a Mercedes he had taken from a friend without her permission. He made a pain of himself by

repeatedly beeping his horn on Lealholm Walk, knowing it would antagonise Mr Donaldson, who was inside chatting to Ms McElvaney's son. And eventually Mr Donaldson, 34, did come out and

confront Clark. A violent row broke out which saw Mr Donaldson smash the Mercedes with a baseball bat. He had no idea that Clark had come armed with a kitchen knife. The fight rolled further

down the street and Clark stabbed his friend in the chest and abdomen. The knife wound to the chest was 14cm deep and penetrated Mr Donaldson's heart. He was pronounced dead hours

later. The path to Clark's penchant for cruelty and brutality first showed itself through domestic violence. At 15, he was in court for dangerous driving. Seven years later, he attacked

his ex-partner with a brick. He smashed a window to get into her home and subjected her to a horrific level of brutality. The victim was left unconscious with a broken jaw after he battered

her face with a motorcycle helmet and smashed her in the head twice with the brick. He was jailed for 18-months. Clark racked up another dangerous driving conviction before he attacked a

different ex-girlfriend in 2013. Having stayed the night, Clark held a knife to the woman's shoulder on June 10 that year. He threatened to cut her tongue out and sat on her, stabbing

her with a pen. The victim was left with cuts in the assault. Months later, records show he let himself into the woman's home, armed with a machete. He took mobile phones off everyone

in the house, before he made violent threats to his ex, who collapsed in fear. Clark's history of violence left him with convictions for kidnap, assault, breach of a non-molestation

order, battery and affray. By 2021, he was back in court for dangerous driving- and jailed for another 18-months. Judge Jonathan Carroll told Clark as he sentenced him for the murder of Mr

Donaldson: "You have an established history of using very serious violence. What ought to have been a simple exchange of words, over a trivial matter, rapidly deteriorated into a verbal

row and violence." A psychiatrist's report found that Clark suffers from a depressive disorder and that he has made suicide attempts in the past. He has PTSD from an incident

where he was bundled into the boot of car in a kidnap. Clark's brother died in a car crash in 2006; his remaining brother passed away in 2012. He found his sister dead in 2022 and lost

his father last year. Then he killed his longstanding friend. He was agitated in the dock at Teesside Crown Court, shouting as the jury convicted him of murder. The next day, he turned his

head to the side and refused to look at the judge as his sentence was read out. Repeatedly squeezing a yellow stress ball in his hands, the court heard that he had shown no remorse for what

he had done. He had already served 177-days on remand before he was convicted of murder last week. And after that is subtracted from his 26-year life sentence, Clark will be 64 when he is

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