Judge Stubbs sentenced David Barraclough to life, with a minimum of 22 years and one month.

Friday's order is the sentence on a guilty plea. The Crown Prosecution Service said the term is life imprisonment with a minimum of 22 years and one month, less time spent on remand. The BBC reported Barraclough refused to come to court for it, after Judge Andrew Stubbs had ordered him on Wednesday to attend in person. A minimum term is how long must pass before parole can be considered. It is not a finding that he will be released when it ends.

The BBC and West Yorkshire Police reported that on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, David Barraclough pleaded guilty at Leeds Crown Court to murdering his wife, Carolann Barraclough, on the day his trial was due to start. He had denied the charge before that change of plea, the BBC reported. West Yorkshire Police put his age at 46 and said he is from Ken Churchill Drive in Horbury, near Wakefield. The BBC's Oct. 6 story also put him at 46. The Press Association, in the Yorkshire Post, put him at 45. The BBC's Friday sentencing story put him at 46. Carolann Barraclough was 37. The police said he admitted causing her death at their home in February. The BBC reported the court heard she was killed sometime between Feb. 19 and Feb. 21. Police found her body at the house on March 5 after a concern-for-safety call. The Yorkshire Evening Post reported the body was in a freezer. A guilty plea is the admission. Friday is when the judge set the minimum term.

Yorkshire Live reported that at the Wednesday, Oct. 7 hearing, Barraclough was told he would be sentenced Friday, Oct. 9. He asked to appear by video link. His Honour Judge Stubbs KC refused and said that, given the circumstances, Barraclough should be in court in person. Yorkshire Live dated the guilty plea itself to "Tuesday, October 7." Oct. 7 was Wednesday. The BBC and the West Yorkshire Police release date the plea to Tuesday, Oct. 6, which is the day the trial had been listed to open. A paper's calendar slip does not move the plea. What Wednesday added was the date and the order that he attend. He did not attend.

The BBC reported Friday that Barraclough refused to come to court and was sentenced in his absence to life with a minimum term of 22 years and one month. The Crown Prosecution Service said the same minimum, less time spent on remand. West Yorkshire Police's Friday release described him as appearing for sentencing and said he was told he must serve at least 22 years and one month. The BBC's account is that he was not in the courtroom. The CPS said that on March 5 he walked into Normanton Police Station and told a receptionist, "I've killed my wife." Officers found Carolann Barraclough's body in a chest freezer at the house. The prosecution's case, the CPS said, was that sometime between Feb. 19 and Feb. 21 he killed her with a hammer, tied up the body, and stored it in the utility room. The BBC reported he then spent about two weeks telling relatives and friends she was in hospital and sending messages from her phone pretending to be her. The CPS said he claimed he had acted in self-defense after she struck him with a hammer, and that he described himself as heartbroken, in a haze, and confused. Prosecutors said CCTV showed no visible injuries. Those are the facts the Crown recited at sentencing on a guilty plea. They are not a trial verdict, because the plea ended the trial.

Jill May, senior crown prosecutor for CPS Yorkshire and Humberside, said, "David Barraclough tried to paint himself as a victim of domestic abuse who had no choice but to kill his wife and was heartbroken by what had happened. The evidence told a very different story." She said that after the killing he hid the body in the home and lied to friends and family, pretending Carolann was alive and recovering in hospital. The CPS said the evidence included pub visits, cash withdrawals from a joint account, and a download of the dating app Tinder two days after the death. The BBC and West Yorkshire Police reported a family statement that called Carolann "the bright light of our family." The mandatory life sentence was required by the plea. The 22 years and one month is the minimum Judge Stubbs imposed. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.