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Cross Cottages, the Fawkham farmhouse tainted by memories of Angela Johnstone's murder, has been demolished
28 March 2016
by Tom Acres
A farmhouse left empty since a man was jailed for murdering his wife on the property has been demolished.
Angela Johnstone, 35, was killed by husband Stuart at 2 Cross Cottages in Fawkham in March 1997.
He battered her over the head with a crowbar before destroying her body in a bonfire.
The farmhouse where Stuart Johnstone murdered his wife Angela in 1997 has been demolished.
He was sentenced at the age of 46 at Maidstone Crown Court in January 2002 to life behind bars.
Passing sentence at the time, Judge Andrew Patience QC said Johnstone had killed his wife to set up a new life with his girlfriend.
“What you did on the night of Friday, 21 March, 1997, was wicked and cruel,” he said.
“I have no doubt that you killed her in order to get your hands on Cross Cottages and set up your life with Sarah Tall.”
Murder victim Angela Johnstone.
It was alleged that Miss Tall, who was 18 at the time, had kept quiet for four years because she was infatuated with the defendant and feared she would suffer the same fate if she told police what had happened.
The court heard it was only when their relationship fell apart that she went to police.
Johnstone was arrested in June 2001, with his wife’s ashes and a ring found at the property shortly after.
The estimated £750,000 home was left to the couple’s children, a boy then aged nine and a girl aged seven, but was left derelict for years and knocked down last month.
Local historian Christopher Proudfoot, from The Old Rectory in nearby Valley Road, spoke to KentOnline's sister paper the Dartford Messenger about the tumultuous history of the property.
Stuart Johnstone - found guilty of murdering his wife in Fawkham.
“Cross Cottages were occupied latterly as two cottages, in separate ownership – it was the southern half, No 2 Cross Cottages, which was occupied by the Johnstones,” he said.
“It had previously belonged to Angela’s parents. Her father, W.A. Hawkins, had lived there for many years and was a former director of the Royal ****nal Co-operative Funeral Service. He was also a collector of horse-drawn vehicles.
“He died in the mid-1980s and his widow and their son continued to live there until they jointly committed suicide with a hose-pipe from the exhaust of the Jaguar-Daimler that had been Mr Hawkins’s last car.
“Angela and her husband then moved in but did not own the house as it was left in trust to their children.
How the farmhouse used to look.
“After Angela was murdered, her husband lived there with his girlfriend for some years until the truth came out, and the children were taken into care and the house left empty.”
The children eventually sold the house to the owner of the nearby Grade II-listed Cross House, who then acquired 1 Cross Cottages and applied to have the two demolished.
Planning permission was granted by Sevenoaks council in December 2014.
Mr Proudfoot criticised the council for allowing the historic buildings to be knocked down, with the owner now planning to build two houses on the same plot of land.
The owner of Cross House was approached by the Messenger but did not wish to comment.
Cross Cottages, the Fawkham farmhouse tainted by memories of Angela Johnstone's murder, has been demolished
28 March 2016
by Tom Acres
A farmhouse left empty since a man was jailed for murdering his wife on the property has been demolished.
Angela Johnstone, 35, was killed by husband Stuart at 2 Cross Cottages in Fawkham in March 1997.
He battered her over the head with a crowbar before destroying her body in a bonfire.
The farmhouse where Stuart Johnstone murdered his wife Angela in 1997 has been demolished.
He was sentenced at the age of 46 at Maidstone Crown Court in January 2002 to life behind bars.
Passing sentence at the time, Judge Andrew Patience QC said Johnstone had killed his wife to set up a new life with his girlfriend.
“What you did on the night of Friday, 21 March, 1997, was wicked and cruel,” he said.
“I have no doubt that you killed her in order to get your hands on Cross Cottages and set up your life with Sarah Tall.”
Murder victim Angela Johnstone.
It was alleged that Miss Tall, who was 18 at the time, had kept quiet for four years because she was infatuated with the defendant and feared she would suffer the same fate if she told police what had happened.
The court heard it was only when their relationship fell apart that she went to police.
Johnstone was arrested in June 2001, with his wife’s ashes and a ring found at the property shortly after.
The estimated £750,000 home was left to the couple’s children, a boy then aged nine and a girl aged seven, but was left derelict for years and knocked down last month.
Local historian Christopher Proudfoot, from The Old Rectory in nearby Valley Road, spoke to KentOnline's sister paper the Dartford Messenger about the tumultuous history of the property.
Stuart Johnstone - found guilty of murdering his wife in Fawkham.
“Cross Cottages were occupied latterly as two cottages, in separate ownership – it was the southern half, No 2 Cross Cottages, which was occupied by the Johnstones,” he said.
“It had previously belonged to Angela’s parents. Her father, W.A. Hawkins, had lived there for many years and was a former director of the Royal ****nal Co-operative Funeral Service. He was also a collector of horse-drawn vehicles.
“He died in the mid-1980s and his widow and their son continued to live there until they jointly committed suicide with a hose-pipe from the exhaust of the Jaguar-Daimler that had been Mr Hawkins’s last car.
“Angela and her husband then moved in but did not own the house as it was left in trust to their children.
How the farmhouse used to look.
“After Angela was murdered, her husband lived there with his girlfriend for some years until the truth came out, and the children were taken into care and the house left empty.”
The children eventually sold the house to the owner of the nearby Grade II-listed Cross House, who then acquired 1 Cross Cottages and applied to have the two demolished.
Planning permission was granted by Sevenoaks council in December 2014.
Mr Proudfoot criticised the council for allowing the historic buildings to be knocked down, with the owner now planning to build two houses on the same plot of land.
The owner of Cross House was approached by the Messenger but did not wish to comment.