How evidence from murder victim Tiffany Render helped convict killer

For almost two weeks, jurors were confronted repeatedly by Tiffany Render’s own moving and eloquent accounts of how the 50-year-old had charmed and then abused her in what became an increasingly dangerous relationship.

They met in a Whitehaven pub, and there was mutual attraction.

Vulnerable and desperate to be loved by a man she could settle down with, Tiffany took a chance on Irwin. In her own words, she even dared to think that he could be her "happy ever after."

Unwittingly, she found herself living in a nightmare - a relationship that lurched from good times to dark days and then weeks of domestic abuse.

Insidiously, Irwin took control of her life - controlling her money, her phone, even what she ate. Combined with his heavy drinking and cocaine use, it was a deadly combination.

Over 16 months, their relationship descended into what became a repeating cycle of control, violence, apology and reconciliation. Time after time, Irwin - 17 stones and physically imposing - turned on his charm. 

After the violence came apologies, pleading, sweet-talking.

The jury were shown dozens of text messages exchanged between Irwin and his 34-year-old victim, in which she bluntly condemned and challenged his loutish drug-fuelled behaviour and he declared his love for her and promised to change.

All lies.

But there was evidence that was even more disturbing – police bodycam footage which recorded how this slightly built woman - just 5ft 1in - was ultimately reduced to a state of terror by the man she once loved.

Paul Irwin (Image: Police photo)

Tiffany Render’s life story ended late in the evening of March 22.

The police and ambulance crews were summoned to Irwin’s George Street flat in Whitehaven at 11.40pm by a 999 call that Irwin himself made.

It was played in court.

The recording captured the panic in Irwin’s voice. As the call-handler patiently explained how he could do CPR, Irwin shouted: "She’s gone... Come on Tiffany – no, she’s dead.”

The police officers who arrived soon after this were confronted by a horrifying scene: Irwin's George Street flat in Whitehaven was awash with blood.

It was in the hallway, the living room, the bathroom and the bedroom.

Home Office pathologist Dr Brian Rodgers concluded Tiffany Render bled to death following a violent sexual assault in which Irwin inflicted “severe force.”  The details of what he did are too distressing to report.

She would have been in agony, her blood loss so rapid she would have been unconscious within 20 minutes, and dead within an hour.

In his evidence, Irwin tried desperately to reinvent the evening, even suggesting that Tiffany had "enjoyed" his extreme sexual violence. 

At one point, under questioning from prosecutor Iain Simkin KC, Irwin claimed that Tiffany had experienced no pain after his attack, and had simply gone to bed.

He woke to find her dead in the bed beside him, he told the jury. "Absurd" was how Mr Simkin described that claim.

The night of March 22 was the fatal “culmination” of a 16-month relationship which had trapped Tiffany Render in a repeating cycle of control, violence, apology, and reconciliation, said the prosecutor. 

Irwin could be charming, persuasive.

But he also had a liking for booze and cocaine, a combination which made him paranoid and violent  – especially with Tiffany Render.

The first clue to his potential for extreme violence came on Monday, July 17 last year. At 11.30am, Tiffany was with Irwin in his flat and became so concerned about his behaviour that she called for an ambulance.

The recording of her 999 call was also played in court.

Calmly, she began explaining her concerns to the call-handler. Suddenly, she screamed out in pain. Irwin had just attacked her, hitting her with a heavy wooden rolling pin. Irwin - clearly drunk - was yelling angrily in the background.

He also slapped her and pulled her hair. She suffered bruising to her back and an ankle injury from the rolling pin assault.

From prison, Irwin sent her pleading letters, desperately trying to persuade Tiffany it had all been one big one-off mistake.

“I really do love you,” he wrote, “and hope you can feel the same way some time… I can understand why you hate me. I have been [an idiot].  I mean what I say: you are the best thing that has happened to me.

“I wish you would believe me. You have told me a bit of what I have done to you in the flat. I am really sorry. It will never happen again. By the sounds of it, I could have really killed you. It will never do anything again. I promise.

"Please believe me.”

After his release from prison, Irwin’s violence abated while he wore an alcohol monitoring tag – part of the sentence  he was given for the assault. But when the tag came off, in October last year, he started drinking again.

He became violent again on Sunday, February 25.

Tiffany later explained that Irwin had consumed 18 cans of beer that night and he had become annoyed with Tiffany because he wanted sex immediately but she told him she needed to smoke a cigarette first.

He was furious.

Despite it being a freezing night, Irwin threw Tiffany out of his flat after slamming the door into her head and, as she crouched next to a bag of her belongings a outside he kicked her “with full force.”

George Street in Whitehaven (Image: Google maps)

A police officer who was called to the scene by a concerned neighbour tried to organised emergency accommodation for Tiffany.

A second officer interviewed her in his patrol car, beginning with: “Are you frightened?” She replied that she was. Asked what she was frightened of, she replied: “Him hurting me again.”

She felt isolated, she said.

Tiffany said that she tried several times to end the relationship as Irwin was becoming "more aggressive" and he wanted to control "everything." He’d even threatened to kill her, she told the officer.

At one point, clearly concerned, the officer told Tiffany: “You need to resolve the situation; I have seen it all too many times.”

She revealed more in a more a written statement, and its contents were chilling. She began by saying Irwin had “full control” of her life. “He's been in control of my bank cards since he came out of prison in October 2023,” she said.

If she wanted to use it, he had to know what for; he checked her account.

She said: “If I go to the shops, I must tell him exactly what I have gone out for," she continued. "If I spend extra, he verbally abuses me, swears and call me names.” He refused to return her bank card, she said.

Irwin needed to know where she was constantly. When she was out of the flat, he called or texted her constantly. In the flat, he refused to let her take her phone to bed.

“I tried to change the password,” she said, “but he became extremely angry and verbally abusive,” she said.

READ MORE: Police urge anyone suffering from domestic abuse to seek help

Miss Render’s statement described how Paul Irwin even controlled her diet, telling her what she could and could not eat. “When I ate a crisp out of a packet, he became extremely angry,” she wrote.

Carlisle Crown Court, where the trial was held. (Image: Newsquest)

Despite the care and support she was receiving from staff at the hostel where she was staying, Irwin continued to have a “psychological hold” over her, said Mr Simkin.

There were other hints of Irwin’s simmering anger – including one of Tiffany Render’s precious family photos: when police found it, they realised the framed canvas had been stabbed 15 times.

Most striking of all, perhaps, were the texts Tiffany sent Irwin in the week before she was killed - messages that showed the dangerous trajectory their relationship.

In one text, she told Irwin: “You have totally destroyed me and broken my heart into a million pieces. I have given everything to you and you still hurt me and hit me.”

Irwin said he still loved her.

“You don’t love me," she responded. "If you did, you would not hurt me again, and again and again.” Nor would he continue taking drugs if he loved her, she said, though Irwin promised he was trying to keep off them.

She went on: “You really have ruined me. I thought I had found my happy ever after. Just lies.” Irwin again said he still loved her and missed her and that his life was “complete” when they were together.

“We had some great times,” he wrote.

“We did, yes,” replied Miss Render. “But when it was bad it was horrific. Very damaging... You love one person and that’s yourself.”

(Image: Archive)

Responding to his comment that he was “worried about her,” Miss Render said: “I’m worried about me. I haven’t got a home, I haven’t got a partner, and I have to go through it all alone.”

Irwin said he would “always be there” for her.”

Miss Render then wrote: “And then hit me and throw me out. Big problem with that. You will always be there to knock me around and be horrible to me.” She reminded him of her recent cancer diagnosis.

Then she added: “Words are not enough anymore; sorry, it’s just too much…I was madly in love with you.”

She had wanted to be with Irwin, she said, but she had been “battered by every man she had ever been with" and Irwin had done the same. He was not the one being abused, hurt and left with broken bones, she said.

The jury also saw for themselves how afraid Tiffany Render was of Irwin.

In police body cam footage, taken before she moved out of his flat, she is seen huddled on a chair, sobbing and anxiously wringing her hands as she explained Irwin's effect on her. He had bombarded her with calls and threats.

Over Tiffany's phone, he even threatened one of the police officers.

Tiffany told the same officer: “I can’t sleep; I can’t eat. He was phoning me all night and threatening me. I’m terrified.”

As he questioned Irwin in court, Mr Simkin suggested he had some kind of “psychological hold” over Tiffany Render, a sinister ability to repeatedly win her back, despite his escalating cycle of violence, apology, and reconciliation.

He told Irwin: “There was a cycle of violence in your relationship throughout the time you were together; that’s right, isn’t it?” “No, it’s not,” said Irwin.

Referring to the violent sexual assault on Tiffany Render that led to her death, Mr Simkin continued: “This is just part of the cycle of violence, only on this occasion you have gone far further than you have previously.”

The jury clearly agreed.

Fuelled by cocaine and booze, Irwin subjected Tiffany to a brutal - and ultimately fatal - sexual assault that caused her death.

As Irwin contemplates decades in jail, there are bound to be questions about whether more could and should have been done to protect Tiffany Render. For now, those questions remain unanswered.

Help for those affected by domestic abuse

If you have been the victim of domestic abuse, or are concerned for someone who is, you can report this by calling 101. 

Always dial 999 in an emergency.

You can get more advice about domestic abuse here: Advice about domestic abuse | Cumbria Police

Read more: Police urge anyone suffering from domestic abuse to seek help