My night of terror with evil SECC killer

A nursery nurse who was confronted in her hotel room by fire extinguisher-wielding maniac Clive Carter today reveals her terrifying ordeal.

Stephanie O’Brien, 24, tells how she sensed her life was in danger as she came face-to-face with the killer security guard exactly a year ago today.

“I just knew there was something about him,” she said. “I didn’t want to look him in the eye because deep down I knew he was looking for trouble and I did not want to see it.”

Father-of-three Carter was jailed last week for 20 years for the brutal murder of Thai woman Khanokporn Satjawat on November 12 last year.

The court heard how he battered his victim to death with a fire extinguisher in a toilet at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow.

It was believed he had become enraged when conference delegate Ms Satjawat complained about him checking her security pass.

Less than two weeks earlier the 6ft 5in former G4S guard, from Motherwell, had confronted Stephanie armed with a fire extinguisher and tried to get into her room while she was alone in a hotel where he also worked.

Stephanie, from Millom, Cumbria, along with friends Abigail Gabbert, 21, Beth Robinson, 20, and 30-year-old Kelly Brown, had travelled to Glasgow for a weekend of shopping and clubbing on Saturday November 3, 2012.

After a successful afternoon on the high street they returned to the Holiday Inn Express around 5.30pm to get ready for their big night out. Stephanie was especially pleased with her efforts after buying a new outfit for the occasion.

But when she tried it on Beth noticed her skirt was not fully zipped because it had got stuck in the lining. They wrestled with the wedged zip for an hour before concluding they needed help.

She said: “Abby and Beth, I am not sure which, decided we needed somebody stronger to pull the zip down. They went downstairs to look for somebody to help.

“The original plan was once they found somebody they would come up and I would go down to reception but Clive, the security guard, came up to the room, so Abby and Beth came with him.

“I was still wearing the skirt and he gave it one great tug. He ripped the zip and it came off one side, it was broken.

“I did not see it as aggressive at the time. I was actually grateful because it did need force.”

But with her outfit ruined Stephanie no longer felt like joining her friends for a night out and persuaded them to leave her behind. The girls agreed they would try a bar or club and return later with food. But unknown to Stephanie they decided not to leave her and remained at the hotel bar.

Downstairs, Abby, Beth and Kelly got chatting to Carter who was “friendly, helpful and polite”, agreeing to take photographs of them on their mobile phones. But, chillingly, he asked where the “other girl” was and walked off shortly after being told she had stayed in her room.

Calculating Carter gave the three girls directions to a Chinese takeaway and, with them out of the way shortly after midnight, he grabbed a fire extinguisher and went in search of Stephanie.

She said: “I had started watching a film, I was a bit scared. I put on an act in front of my friends because I didn’t want them to stay in.

“I heard a knock but I was not sure if it was my door or next door. I listened and the knock came again it was definitely my door. I knew it wasn’t the girls because I would have heard them.”

Despite her fears Stephanie reasoned he was employed by the hotel to protect people and she felt compelled to turn the door handle. If that moment of trust put her within inches of her life, her next move probably saved her from a gruesome fate.

She said: “I opened the door a bit, enough for my face to pop out. He said that I had phoned reception and reported a fire in my room. I can’t recall what I said but in my head I was thinking ‘Don’t be stupid. Would I be in the room if there was a fire?’

“I opened the door and ran past him into the corridor. I had my phone so I lit the screen and said my friends had only gone for food and were now back. He went into the room, I don’t know what he was doing, but he came back out towards me and I ran past him and got into the room and locked the door. I didn’t look back through the peep hole and didn’t hear him leave.”

Meanwhile, Abby, Beth and Kelly had discovered Carter had sent them down a “dangerous” back street frequented by prostitutes with no takeaway in sight. After rushing back they claim all four of them complained about Carter’s behaviour but were dismissed by late night reception staff who “didn’t want to know”.

A few weeks later Stephanie was contacted by police and asked to give a statement about the disturbance. That call marked the start of a year Stephanie will never forget, which included bravely facing evil Carter when she gave evidence during hi9s trial for the killing of Ms Satjawat.

She said: “The police explained a bit to us, that it was the man we had a run-in with and he had used a weapon a fire extinguisher. They said I’d had a very lucky escape.

“It has been a tough year. I have been to see a counsellor with stress for about six months. I could not be on my own in the house, I used to have the TV on silent so I could hear everything. I could not go out in the dark and I missed days off work.”

With the support of a loving family and boyfriend, she is now turning her life around.

Hearing Carter had been jailed for murdering Ms Satjawat and a breach of the peace for her hotel horror, gave Stephanie further confidence to move on from the trauma. But she claims she will not be able to put it behind her until the hotel apologises for her ordeal and “not taking the complaint seriously” at the time.

She added: “It is making me feel so annoyed. We don’t want anything from them, we just want them to apologise. We paid to have a good time in the hotel. They are supposed to be there to protect us and I think they do owe us an apology.”

Holiday Inn Express on Stockwell Street is owned and operated by Somerston Hotels (Glasgow) Limited, under a franchise agreement with InterContinental Hotels Group.

A spokesman said: “We have no evidence to suggest that hotel staff behaved other than in an entirely appropriate way in response to the facts.”

Meanwhile it has emerged Carter’s wife Paula has insisted she is standing by him. Just hours after he was convicted, the mum of three posted a string of messages on Police Scotland’s Facebook page. In them Paula, 33, claimed he was mentally ill and had been failed by doctors.

She wrote: “I am Clive’s wife and as I said before, I don’t excuse what my husband has done at all. But have you ever lived with someone with a mental illness and needs help? I believe that no amount of time my husband spends in prison will ever console the lady’s family. Clive was diagnosed with a personality disorder, which is classed as a mental illness, by not just one but three doctors. Myself and his doctors failed him. He wasn’t given the help he needed when he asked for it.”

During the trial the stark picture which emerged of Carter was one of a deeply disturbed and highly dangerous killer. He admitted killing Khanokporn Satjawat but claimed he had no memory of the incident, leaving his defence team to argue a personality disorder meant he was only guilty of culpable homicide. But the jury heard evidence Carter was not only a deeply disturbed man whose anger was triggered by women but an accomplished liar.

He was physically and verbally abusive to his 33-year-old wife Paula who he attacked and throttled. And at one stage he was sent for counselling by a GP but quit after two sessions because the counsellor annoyed him.

The High Court also heard he was capable of calculated deception. After bludgeoning his victim, Carter had the presence of mind to wash blood off the fire extinguisher, hide his bloodstained blazer and tell police he saw a mystery Asian man carrying an extinguisher in the aftermath of the killing. It was this deadly temper combined with a presence of mind to deceive police and cover his tracks which saw Carter found guilty of murder and jailed for at least 20 years.