The two women in Fabian's
life: mistress Jackie Phillips, left, and wife Victoria. Phillips
picture supplied by Kent Media/Sidcup Jim Bennett

by Keith Hunt

A love cheat soldier who tried to kill his pregnant wife by
blowing up her car has been jailed for life.

Nicholas Fabian was put behind bars for a minimum of 16 years
before he will be eligible for parole.

Judge Andrew Patience QC told him: "You are an
evil man without conscience, who is prepared to destroy at least
one human life in order to achieve your selfish ends.

"Not only are you evil, you present a danger to the general
public.

"In my judgement, this offence makes it clear that you present a
significant risk were you ever to find yourself in a similar
relationship situation of committing offences like this in
future.

"These offences are of such seriousness and gravity with
feelings of utter horror and revulsion which this court and
right-minded members of the public must feel, and have to be
reflected in the sentence I pass."

The 33-year-old father was found guilty on Thursday of attempted
murder and causing an explosion likely to endanger life.

He admitted possessing 95 rounds of 5.56mm rifle bullets without
a firearms certificate.

Sorry, this video asset has been removed.

Video: Alistair Dixon,
from the CPS, on Fabian's life sentence

The jury of eight women and four men took just over an hour to
convict him at the end of a two-week trial.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Fabian booby-trapped his wife
Victoria's Mazda with a grenade at their home in Highview, Vigo
village, near Gravesend, in March last year.

The car burst into flames and Mrs Fabian, 33, a district nurse
at Tonbridge Cottage Hospital, suffered serious leg injuries.

Her son Charlie, nine, by a previous relationship and unborn
child escaped unharmed.

Fabian, who was on the reservist list at the time and due to be
posted later that month to Afghanistan, stole a grenade while on
Army training and rigged it in the wheel arch so that it exploded
when the car moved off.

The blast happened as Mrs Fabian was about to return the car to
her mother in Tonbridge. Fabian was in the family Vauxhall Zafira
with their four-year-old son Harry.

Watched by neighbours, Fabian, who was having an affair with
work colleague Jackie Phillips, 33, pulled his wife from the
burning car as she screamed in pain with her legs on fire.

Judge Patience said Fabian he had been convicted on evidence
which was "clear, compelling and, indeed, overwhelming".

He told the ex-soldier: "What you did in causing that explosion
with all the consequences that flowed from it on March 5 last year,
was wicked beyond belief.

"You conceived a plan to rid yourself of your wife, which
demonstrated low cunning in its planning and preparation and utter
heartlessness and chilling ruthlessness in its execution."

The judge said he believed the plan had been in the making for
some time. Ammunition and other items in his shed showed clearly
explosions were on his mind.

He took advantage of his position as ammunition NCO on an Army
range in Warcop, Cumbria, to steal an L109 high explosive hand
grenade.

Knowing his wife would be the next person to drive her mother's
car, he set the booby trap, almost certainly under the cover of
darkness.

Fabian admitted being obsessed with his mistress and to have a
future with her wanted to be rid of his wife.

"Your wife was not to know as you sat together on the night of
March 4 that the future planned for your life together, which you
were discussing, meant nothing to you and that you were practising
the cruelest of deceptions," said Judge Patience.

"She was not to know, in short, that the man sitting with her
that night was in reality planning her death.

"The next day you sent a text message to your mistress
professing your love for her, just over one hour before the
explosion occurred."

Fabian knew his children would be accompanying them and that his
wife was pregnant.

It mattered not to Fabian that his stepson's life was in the
gravest danger, if not ended, by travelling in the car with his
mother.

"After the explosion, when your plan failed, you went back to
the car and in front of your children and neighbours when they came
to help, demonstrated care and concern.

"However, it was a complete sham. You had no choice
but behave in that way in front of others, but your behaviour was a
mockery in reality."

The court heard Victoria Fabian had recovered up to 85 per cent
of the function in her legs in the 11 months since the
explosion.

"She is of the opinion she is about 50 per cent of the way there
at the moment," said prosecutor Graham Reeds QC.

"She still walks with the aid of crutches, She still suffers
significant pain. She accepts pain will be permanent."

Mrs Fabian, having sat through the trial, was not in court for
sentence but wrote a statement about the impact of the ordeal which
was not read out.

"The only thing I wish to add is the moving way she speaks about
the offence and the effect on her sons," said Mr Reeds.

Judge Patience said Mrs Fabian faced a lifetime of physical pain
and would not regain full function.

"I have read her impact statement, parts of which describe the
devastating effect of what you did upon Charlie and Harry - moving
and, indeed, heart rending," he told Fabian.