Widow says killer deserved execution: For one of those bereaved, jailing Nicholas Vernage for life was not enough

AS NICHOLAS VERNAGE last night began a combined five life sentences for three murders and two attempted murders, the widow of one of his victims, Sergeant Alan King, said she believed he should have been executed.

Monica King, who attended every day of Vernage's trial at the Old Bailey, told a press conference afterwards that she would never be able to forgive her husband's killer. She said: 'He is still alive and my husband is dead.'

'I know that nothing can ever bring Alan back but for me no sentence that our courts are allowed to impose could ever be enough,' she added. Asked if she believed in capital punishment, she replied 'Yes.' But Mrs King said she did not believe police officers should be armed.

She believed Vernage was also responsible for the deaths of both her parents. Her mother, 77, died in May from a long-term illness and her father, aged 75, in September from a heart attack. Mrs King said she was convinced their deaths were brought about by the trauma of his murder.

Mrs King said she had clung to the one positive outcome of her husband's murder. 'The one good thing is the knowledge that so many members of the public are 100 per cent behind our police and feel horror that this kind of thing can happen. All that any of us can now do is to try and rebuild our lives as best we can and hope that there proves to be some truth in the saying that time heals.'

Sgt King, 41, a policeman for 22 years, died when he confronted Vernage in Walthamstow, north- east London, last October. The couple had been married for 19 months; both had grown-up children from previous marriages.

Before attacking Sgt King, Vernage had killed two other people the previous week; later the same day, he stabbed two other police officers in south London, PCs John Jenkinson and Simon Castrey. Both are still off work from their injuries.

Describing the stabbing yesterday, PC Jenkinson said: 'I knew I was dying - quite simply from the wound inflicted I knew unless I received hospital treatment very quickly I would be dead.' If Vernage had not been caught 'heaven knows what he would have carried on doing'.

Detective Superintendent Douglas Harvey, who led the inquiry, said Vernage was one of 'the most frightening and dangerous men I have come across'. He added: 'I don't think he just wanted to kill police officers, he was anxious for confrontation wherever he could find it. He wanted to become a lifer.'

(Photographs omitted)