A TV engineer who stabbed his next door neighbour to death in "truly horrifying savagery" in a feud sparked by her son's noisy skateboard was jailed for at least 28 years on Tuesday.
At the Old Bailey on Tuesday (June 30) following a trial, Trevor Gibbon, of Windsor Crescent, Harrow, was convicted of murdering Alison Morrison on December 18 last year.
Jurors heard he armed himself with two knives and lay in wait for Alison Morrison, 45, the day after she won a restraining order against him.
The executive was walking to work when he dragged her to the ground and stabbed her 40 times in a "calm and calculated" attack.
Gibbon left the mother-of-one bleeding to death near her home in Harrow but with her dying breath she gasped: "Trevor Gibbon did this to me."
The court heard he "enjoyed" stalking the Morrison family, who he admitted subjecting to a two-and-a-half year harassment campaign.
Gibbon repeatedly sobbed giving evidence in court and claimed his "mild depression" caused him to kill Mrs Morrison.
But Gibbon was unanimously convicted of murder by the jury as Mrs Morrison's family applauded and sobbed in the public gallery of the Old Bailey.
Husband Cedric stood up in court to say: 2Alison's death will always be beyond my comprehension.
'"She died for nothing in the cruellest way possible at the hands of our neighbour.
"A bright life has been extinguished forever."
Son Kori, 17, who no longer lives in the family home, said in a statement Gibbon should have to spend the rest of his life in prison.
"For him to have stabbed my mum "at least 35 times", consequently taking her life in an unimaginably excruciating painful way, I fail to see how any prospect of release from prison could be given to him," said Kori.
"He has essentially given my mum, the person who raised me and of whom I considered to be the closest person to me in my life, a life sentence of his own accord.
"How can a person decide to take away someone's life in such an abhorrent way and not have their own life taken away from them, in the form of imprisonment.'
Judge Timothy Pontius handed Gibbon a life sentence with a minimum prison term of 28 years.
He said the extended attack was of "truly horrifying savagery", adding: 'This therefore was not a frenzied loss of control on the defendant's part, but a merciless and deliberate act of vengeance undoubtedly with an intent to kill Alison Morrison at the forefront of his mind.'
The judge said: 'This brutal murder robbed a close-knit family of a devoted and caring wife, mother, sister and aunt, a woman... with a zest for life and enthusiasm for her responsible and stimulating job.
'As a result the family has been left devastated and in particular the devastation of the relationship between her husband and her son, which may take a long time to repair.'
The victim was a senior manager for consumer charity Which? and vice chairman of the Harrow Safer Neighbourhood Board.
The dispute between the neighbours began shortly after the victim's family moved into number 91 Windsor Crescent, Harrow, in 2011.
Gibbon and his partner, teacher Maria Perett, who lived next door at number 93, began complaining almost immediately about the noise made by the family's teenage son Kori, then 16.
As the arguments raged the Morrisons installed CCTV to gather evidence against Gibbon and their neighbours did the same.
Mrs Morrison said in a statement made on 13 December last year: "It felt like he was obsessed with us and was planning his time based on our schedule.'
'It is impossible to explain how unsettling and disturbing it is to worry about someone else's erratic behaviour every day.
'I became anxious for my family for what the neighbour would do next.
"He seemed to enjoy it - and whenever the police visited they would change their tactic and escalate what they were doing."
Attempts by the local authority and police to broker better relations were rebuffed by Gibbon and his partner.
He would bang bin lids together at 6am, flash his car lights at Morrisons' house while blasting his horn and deliberately box their car on the shared driveway.
Gibbon refused to sign an "acceptable behaviour" contract in March last year despite the efforts of police and the local authority.
Six months later he pulled up alongside the couple in his car as they made their way to work and stopped to stare at them before driving on.
Gibbon later followed Mr Morrison to work, prompting the couple to complain to police.
He was arrested on 20 November before taking an overdose of Paracetamol in an apparent suicide attempt.
On 17 December Gibbon pleaded guilty to harassment between August 2012 and October 2014 and was given a restraining order barring him from contacting Mrs Morrison and her family.
He sobbed openly in court and moaned to psychiatrists that no-one seemed to care about his distress.
Gibbon and his teacher partner went shopping in Watford to try and take his mind off the case, but he began seething with rage and hardly slept that night.
The next day Mrs Morrison left home at just after 7.40am to walk to Northolt Park Station.
Gibbon pounced in Alexendra Avenue and fled the scene in his car, which was spotted in Lincolnshire, more than 100 miles away.
Gibbon claimed he could not remember any of the attack and refused to apologise to Mrs Morrisons's family, who sat quietly in court throughout the trial.
"I don't actually remember doing what I did - I just feel, don't know what I feel,' Gibbon said.
"It's on my mind all the time, it's all I think about really, the way the Morrisons must be feeling, especially about me.
"It's just devastating, what makes it worse is all the history of it and being involved. It makes it worse.2
Mrs Morrison grew up in Bedhampton, Hampshire, and lived with her husband Cedric and now 17-year-old son Kori in Harrow.
Her three sisters Julie, Paula and Lorraine live in Waterlooville, Hampshire.
