A JEALOUS boyfriend who “exploded with rage” and knifed his ex-girlfriend 75 times as she sat in her car in an “act of wickedness” has been jailed for life.

Joshua Stimpson murdered Molly McLaren, 23, just minutes after she was warned by a friend to be careful of the “freak”, reports The Sun.

McLaren was stabbed at least 75 times and her throat was completely severed as Stimpson “exploded with rage” in Chatham, Kent on June 29 last year.

She had become concerned about Stimpson, 26, after she split with him and sent a final message to a friend moments before she died saying she felt like she was always looking over her shoulder.

McLaren’s family wept in the public gallery and shouted out “yes” as Stimpson, who had denied murder but admitted manslaughter with diminished responsibility, was convicted for a minimum of 26 years.

Sentencing, Judge Adele Williams said: “This was an act of wickedness. You took away Molly’s life, quite deliberately in the most vicious fashion,” she added.

“You slit her throat while repeatedly stabbing her. You did this because she had brought the relationship with you to an end about 12 days before this killing.

“You followed her to the gym that morning. You spent time stalking her in the gym and then you lay in wait for her in the car park, waiting until she got into her car so that she was trapped when you got in and launched your attack.

“You intended to kill her. You were determined to punish her for finishing the relationship with you. You were seeking revenge.

“This was all committed in public. This was a premeditated killing, there was planning.”

Describing McLaren as beautiful and intelligent, Judge Williams continued: “She had her whole life in front of her. She was a loved and much-loving daughter, sister, family member and friend to many.

“She is mourned by a large number of people. Her family’s grief and anguish is raw and apparent for everyone to see.

“Their loss and grief is immeasurable and nothing that I can say nor any sentence I can pass can deal with that grief and loss.”

During the trial, jurors were shown chilling footage of Stimpson working out in the gym next to McLaren before he launched into his stabbing frenzy.

Stimpson can be seen walking into the same exercise room as McLaren clutching a bag containing the two knives and pickaxe he used to kill her.

Later, the footage captures him climbing back up the stairs to the room and peeking through the door before turning back.

He is then seen holding a gym bag and walking out into the car park where McLaren was killed after she asked him: “Are you following me now?”

She had also sent a text to her mum, Joanne, at 10.45am saying “Mum he’s turned up at the gym and come next to me”.

Worried McLaren had also exchanged 20 messages with friend Amy Lee in the minutes leading up to her death about Stimpson being at her gym.

As McLaren frantically beeped the horn and screamed for help, Lee had continued to message unaware she was dying in a bloodbath.

Lee had said: “Any indication you could have been there at all. Last night, now today. Starting to look dodgy.

“He has no sense of what is normal. He is a freak. Just stay away from him.”

Dogwalker Benjamin Morton had desperately tried to pull Stimpson off McLaren as he hacked at her but his hands kept slipping on blood.

He told the court: “I looked inside the car and I could see that she had her throat cut. He seemed determined to make sure she was dead.

“He wasn’t stabbing her, he was cutting at her throat at this point, just to make sure she would never come back.

“I looked at her and I thought ‘I don’t think there is anything else I can do. She isn’t going to survive this.’”

Stimpson cried in the dock as jurors heard he had used severe force to kill McLaren with a kitchen knife.

He cut through her jugular veins and major arteries and the bone in her neck but there were so many knife wounds it was impossible to say exactly how many she had.

McLaren met Stimpson on Tinder and the couple dated for four months in November 2016 before they briefly split.

She finally ended the relationship for good on June 17 — just 12 days before she died — but obsessed Stimpson began posting derogatory comments and photos about the part-time barmaid on Facebook.

These included lies about her using cocaine and he tagged people so that all her family could see.

McLaren had told her mum before her death she had seen posts online from Stimpson after they broke up which said “there’s more to come”.

The pair were so concerned they circulated photos of him to neighbours and McLaren reported the posts to police on June 22.

Two ex-girlfriends told the court how he stalked them and police had also warned him twice to stay away from McLaren and he was last spoken to by police on June 27 last year — two days before McLaren’s death.

Kent Police reported itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission after McLaren’s death.

In the days leading up to the killing, Stimpson joined a gym where McLaren had applied for a receptionist’s job a week earlier.

That same day, he bought a paring knife from a nearby store where he had previously purchased a pickaxe.

On the day of McLaren’s death, he lay in wait in his car as she left the gym before slowly driving to her car “waiting for the moment that he has carefully considered to kill her”.

His defence team argued he was suffering from an emotionally unstable personality disorder with a hypersensitivity to rejection, which resulted in a loss of self-control after the breakup.

Judge Williams said: “You are concerned only with yourself and your own feelings. You have a narcissistic personality trait and I am sure you are not suffering from a personality disorder. You are supremely selfish and callous.”

Senior investigating officer Detective Sergeant Ali Worton said: “Molly was a popular and ambitious young woman with her whole life ahead of her but this was stolen by Stimpson in the most brutal way imaginable.

“It was clear to the jury and us that Molly’s death was pre-planned and that Stimpson is a cold and calculated killer rather than somebody who does not have the mental capacity to control himself.

“By denying murder and failing to accept responsibility for his actions, he forced Molly’s family and friends to suffer even further distress through the tough ordeal of a crown court trial.

“I would like to pay tribute to Molly’s family for the strength and dignity they have shown throughout and I hope this result is of some comfort.”