A jet-setting executive who mixed with the rich and famous was beaten to death by her abusive and alcoholic boyfriend just weeks after she told police ‘he’s going to murder me’.
Tony Devenport, 57, waged a campaign of terror against Stephanie Blundell, 41, which she had likened to the horror movie The Shining.
She had told friends she was living in fear of his paranoid rages which she compared in messages to those featured in the iconic 1980 film starring Jack Nicholson.
The abuse culminated in Ms Blundell being confined to her home for ten days and being fed ice lollies laced with vodka.
A remorseless Devenport told police he had ‘just slapped her about a few times the night before’ and insisted she had fatally hurt herself while drunk.
But she had multiple bruises on her face and body, and weighed just 48kg when she was found by her father Phil Blundell.
In a harrowing witness testimony, he told Chester Crown Court she looked ‘like a zombie’ when he found her at the apartment she shared with Devenport.
In the weeks before her murder, Ms Blundell, who once worked in Paris as a globe trotting executive for the luxury watchmakers Tag Heuer, had been on an 11-day holiday with Devenport to Kostice, in Slovakia.
Stephanie Blundell, 41, feared Tony Devenport would ‘murder’ her following their holiday
Tony Devenport, 57, was found guilty of murder at Chester Crown Court and will be sentenced on February 28
Ms Blundell looked ‘like a zombie’ when her father found her with bruises about her face and body
She had posted social media pictures of the couple with the caption: ‘A genuine moment caught between all the staged pics.’
But the pair clashed over his heavy drinking during the trip – and following their return he kept her confined to their home in Chester and fed her vodka-laced ice lollies.
Mr Blundell made the nightmarish discovery on June 20, 2025, when he went to the couple’s apartment to find Devenport wandering around the flat in ‘an intoxicated daze’
In a statement to police, the father said: ‘I hammered on the door and Tony came to the door quite quickly.
‘He was in a right state, physically and mentally and he said: “I think she’s dead, I think she’s dead.”
‘I said, “what do you mean, you think she’s dead?” but he [was] weeping and emotional and just psychotic.
‘He said: “she’s in there” and I go into the back bedroom, and it’s, it’s just a terrible, terrible sight.
‘I knew straight away she was dead. She had been a beautiful girl but when I saw her, she looked like a zombie.
Ms Blundell pictured with Devenport during their trip to Slovakia
The court heard that Ms Blundell told a taxi driver on their return from holiday that Devenport will ‘batter me when we go in’
‘Tony was behind me and I said to him: “I know she’s dead, you’ve killed her.”
‘The apartment was covered in filth, beer cans everywhere. It was absolutely disgusting. I regret not breaking that door down earlier.’
Devenport told police that the only violence he inflicted on Ms Blundell was when he grabbed her arms hard the previous evening and pushed her onto a mattress.
He claimed the victim must have suffered an internal injury which was caused by her own abuse of alcohol and died unexpectedly seconds before her father arrived.
The court heard he had told his brother he had been planning to ask Stephanie to marry him and added: ‘I just slapped her about a few times the night before.’
The ‘coward’ was found guilty of murder after a trial at Chester Crown Court. He denied wrongdoing.
The court heard that Stephanie was a ‘talented young woman’ who after leaving university got a job as an intern in 2007 with watchmaker Tag Heuer.
She impressed bosses with her work and after a series of job promotions would attend Formula One social events and arrange back stage access to celebrity guests.
During her ten-year career Ms Blundell rubbed shoulders with motor racing stars Lewis Hamilton, Stirling Moss and Damon Hill and artists Pharrell Williams and Kanye West.
She would travel to Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.
But her life began to implode when she herself began drinking heavily, moved back in with her parents and met Devenport in 2024.
He had previously been involved with his brother in a go karting business in Deeside, on the England-Wales border, before going on to buy and renovate properties in Chester.
But he began abusing alcohol himself due to issues over a business deal.
Prosecutor Owen Edwards KC said: ‘When sober he was described in messages from Stephanie as a kind man.
‘But when in the middle of a binge his behaviour scared Stephanie.
‘The defendant was described as possessive angry and paranoid, and she wanted him to receive help.’
Devenport entered rehab at a Priory clinic and eventually quit drinking but in May 2025 fell off the wagon during the couple’s trip to Slovakia when he was told his mother would have to move into a nursing home due to dementia.
Mr Edwards added: ‘Once again his behaviour became a source of real concern to Stephanie who messaged family members about his behaviour.
‘In many texts she made it clear that she would be deleting her messages since he would otherwise check them and become angry.
‘On their return from Slovakia they got a taxi home but the driver called the police because she had complained: “He’ll batter me when we go in – if I go in there now, he’ll just punch me.”‘
The court heard police did attend the property following the cab driver’s call and arrested Devenport for assault but Ms Blundell asked that no action be taken against him.
She told officers: ‘He’s like full on serious like gunna murder me… but I mother him and I shouldn’t do that. I am so sorry.’
In the days before her death the couple booked into the Pied Bull hotel, a former coach house in Chester, for two nights in a bid to save their relationship.
But staff were called to a bust up and Devenport was thrown out in the early hours.
Detective inspector Andrea Price of Cheshire Police said following the verdict: ‘Devenport was a coward. He has shown no remorse for his actions and throughout the investigation has refused to admit what he did.’
Devenport will be sentenced on Februrary 28.
