Fiona Robinson's heartbroken family speaks out as partner jailed for murder after vicious Chorley attack

Jason Gowen, 27, called 999 after his partner, Fiona Robinson, stopped breathing at an address on Congress Street at around 2.15am on May 26, 2023.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Gowen gave paramedics and police a variety of contradictory explanations for her injuries, including that she had sustained them during a night out on May 24.

However, CCTV of Fiona during her evening out showed that she was walking normally. It also showed no evidence that she was in any pain.

She was fit and well when she walked through her front door, where Gowen was waiting for her.

Over the next 24 hours, Gowen brutally assaulted Fiona before calling for an ambulance in the early hours of May 26.

Fiona's body was covered in bruises, bite marks and she had cuts to her face.

Officers also found multiple holes in the walls and a damaged suitcase close to her body.

A post-mortem examination found she had died from multiple injuries, with the pathologist also finding bruising around her neck consistent with strangulation and evidence of suffocation.

She had 16 fractured ribs, five fractures to her lumbar spine process and significant bruising, both old and fresh, over her entire body.

READ MORE: Man who launched 'violent' assault against partner jailed for murder.

In a statement read in court, Fiona's mother, Susan Dunstan, said: "Since we lost Fiona, I haven't been able to eat or sleep properly.

"It takes me hours and hours to drift off, and when I do all I can see is Fiona.

"I find myself going through what must have happened over and over again. Fiona Robinson's that I just want to wake up from.

"As soon as I open my eyes she is in my thoughts. No mother should ever have to bury her child, especially in such circumstances.

"I cannot get the image of Fiona, injured, out of my head. I have nightmares where I can see it taking place, but I am powerless to stop him."

Gowen and Fiona had been in a relationship for 15 months, after Fiona moved to Chorley from Barrow-in-Furness to live with him.

During that time there were a number of concerns raised by friends and colleagues of Fiona in relation to injuries that they had observed and also the control they believed Gowen to have over her.

Some of these led to reports to police and subsequent investigations and a disclosure under Clare's Law was made to Fiona.

This revealed that Gowen had previously been the subject of domestic abuse reports with a number of previous partners.

He had also been charged with an offence of assault on a previous partner which was proceeding through the court process.

That case would not reach its conclusion at court before the murder of Fiona Robinson, and Gowen was sentenced in relation to those offences on Wednesday (January 17).

In a statement read in court, her two teenage children said: "Emotionally, a massive hole has been left in our lives and our hearts. It's as if we have a constant physical ache in our chests.

"I can be sat on a bus and hear children shout 'mum', or walk down the street and hear a child call out 'mum', and I realise that I'll never be able to say that again myself.

Speaking about Gowen, they added: “I feel anger towards him as he is the reason I didn't see my mum for the last twelve months and the reason our mum isn't here anymore.

"If he had never entered our lives she would still be here."

Gowen, of Congress Street, Chorley, pleaded guilty to murder in court on October 27, 2023.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 20 years at Preston Crown Court on January 17.

He received 40 weeks which will run concurrently for the offences committed against a previous partner.

Gowen, who had spent much of the sentencing hearing sitting with his head in his hands, was in tears as he was taken from the dock.

Tom Snape, Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West said: “Jason Gowen clearly poses a significant risk to women.

"He brutally murdered a woman he was in a relationship with whilst awaiting sentence for offences against a previous partner."

"Our thoughts are with the family of Fiona Robinson and all those who have been affected by Gowen's violent actions."