Man jailed for life for Queen Street murders

Andrew Saunders will serve a minimum of 23 years for killing the young couple


A man who stabbed a young couple to death on one of the busiest shopping streets in Cardiff has been jailed for life.

Andrew Saunders, 21, was found guilty of the murders of Zoe Morgan, 21, and her boyfriend Lee Simmons, 33 and sentenced to a life term, with a minimum of twenty three years.

Saunders confronted the couple in the early hours of the 28th of September last year as they walked home along Queen Street from a night shift at Matalan.

Flowers lie outside Matalan, where Miss Morgan and Mr Simmons worked

The court heard how Saunders, who had previously admitted to the murders on his arrest, was jealous of the pair after they became a couple, following the collapse of his own relationship with Miss Morgan.

In what Justice Nicola Davies called “savagely violent conduct”, he attacked Mr Simmons first, as Miss Morgan pleaded with him to stop.

Saunders then told her “I’m coming for you next”, before chasing her down the street to the doorway of Boots, before stabbing her several times. Saunders then sent a shocking text to his father, saying “thanks for being a useless father, just killed two people, cheers”.

Cardiff residents awoke to find Queen Street cordoned off. Credit : @kobb

Searches on his computer included ways to “commit murder and get away with it”, and how long killers got in jail.

Saunders had also purchased the two knives used and a rifle shortly before the attack.

The families of both Miss Morgan and Mr Simmons said in a statement how their lives had been “changed forever” by the attacks, and expressed their disappointment in the length of the sentence given.