HE stabbed his love rival to death after becoming infatuated with his girlfriend over the internet – now German computer games fanatic David Heiss is facing at least 18 years in prison.

A judge said that Heiss, 21, who stabbed Matthew Pyke 86 times, had become “driven by obsession” with Matthew’s girlfriend, Joanna Witton, a former Selby College student and York shop assistant.

Mr Justice Keith said Heiss had been unable to cope with rejection and carried out a “brutal and savage”, premeditated and carefully-planned murder. The judge said Heiss should not be considered for parole until he had served 18 years in jail.

He said he wanted Miss Witton and members of Matthew’s family to know he had taken into account the devastation and the unimaginable effect that his death, and the circumstances of it, had had on their lives.

“I wish to express my personal condolences to you on your terrible loss,” he said. “Throughout this case, you have behaved with great dignity, even though you must have been angered by the fairness shown to David Heiss, in contrast to what he showed Matthew.

“I have no doubt that you would have preferred to see David Heiss locked up for the rest of his life, and I know that you must be thinking that 18 years is nothing compared to the loss of Matthew’s life, which is priceless.”

Miss Witton, 21, who found her boyfriend after the attack at their Nottingham flat and tried in vain to revive him, was at Nottingham Crown Court as Heiss was convicted by a jury yesterday of murder.

She attended Selby High School before spending two years at Selby College, but also worked as a sales assistant at Rohan’s outdoor adventure clothing store in Stonegate, York, where manager Gary Sutemire has previously described her as a “happy and likeable girl”.

He said: “She is just a brilliant person. You cannot imagine anything happening like this to her. It is just awful.”

He said she had always spoken fondly of Matthew, adding: “She was definitely someone who was in love with this guy. It is just unbelievable. Everyone loved her here. She used to slot in. She was a very positive and proactive person. She always had a lot to say.”

Miss Witton’s parents, who live in Yew Tree Close, Selby, were unavailable for comment yesterday.

The court had been told during the trial how Heiss had become obsessed with Miss Witton after meeting her through the war gaming website, called Warscentral, which she ran with her boyfriend from their flat.

In his last moments, Mr Pyke, 20, had written DAV, the first three letters of Heiss’s Christian name, in his own blood on the side of his computer to alert police to his killer’s identity.

Miss Witton had urged Heiss to see a psychiatrist, and he wrote back: “Jo, one day I will break my promise and come back to Nottingham and offer you a knife or something and tell you to kill me, because I don’t want to live without you.”


Tragedy struck as virtual world erupted into reality

FORENSIC psychologist Professor Kevin Browne said it seemed that for Heiss a relationship in a virtual world had spilled over into the real world.

“This poor girl (Miss Witton) may have formed a relationship with him in the virtual world and then he has turned it into reality by stalking her and becoming insanely jealous,” said the academic, from the University of Nottingham.

“In any case, he (Heiss) would find it difficult to develop relationships in the real world but, if he had done, he would still be insanely jealous.

“It seems that his relationship in a virtual world has spilled over into the real world. The problem with the virtual world is that people will take risks that they wouldn’t do in the real world. People say things in jest at a distance that they wouldn’t say in the real world.

“People may be more flirtatious in the virtual world than they would be in the real world. People get confused between reality and the virtual world.” He said the underlying cause of Heiss’s insane jealousy was a fear of abandonment, having been rejected by either his parents or girlfriends.