Sweethearts' reunion ended in murder

By Chloe Axford
BBC News, Devon

Stephen Keen was stabbed a number of times by Matta

It was an advert for a holiday villa on the Friends Reunited website which triggered a tragic series of events that ended in murder.

Stephen Keen was a 54-year-old RAF Flight Lieutenant, based at Lyneham in Wiltshire.

He realised the details of the property in Sardinia had been posted by his childhood sweetheart Susan Matta.

After emailing her the couple rekindled their romance and set up home together in Devon.

But less than a year later Mr Keen was stabbed to death in front of his girlfriend by her jealous husband Francesco Matta.

'Full of love'

Matta was found guilty of murder at Exeter Crown Court on Friday.

During the trial, the jury heard Mr Keen and Mrs Matta originally met when he was 17 and she was 14.

But after an argument when he joined the RAF, the couple lost touch.

When they met again via Friends Reunited in 2006 it was 30 years since they had last spoken.

At the time 53-year-old Mrs Matta was living in Sardinia with her Sardinian husband Francesco. They had moved there after getting married in 2003.

I cannot stop thinking of you - you are the blood in my veins Francesco Matta Husband murdered wife's lover

She met him while he was running Franco's Restaurant in Braunton, North Devon.

During the trial the court heard how Mr Matta "was full of life with a raucous sense of humour and they fell in love".

His wife said he worshipped the ground she walked on and she could not fault him as a husband.

When she left him for Mr Keen and called him from Devon to break the news, Matta's reaction was dramatic. He tracked down the lovers' new address in Tiverton, Devon and crossed Europe bent on revenge.

En route he sent his estranged wife a postcard saying: "I cannot stop thinking of you. You are the blood in my veins."

He also bought a four-inch knife, a can of petrol, rope, tape and a pick-axe handle.

When he arrived at the Mr Keen's house on 6 July 2006 he said he had taken out a contract with a Mafia friend to kill him and demanded £36,000 to call it off.

'I am an executioner'

When the RAF officer threatened to call the police he struck, stabbing him in the neck four times.

In court eyewitness Mrs Matta described the scene as "like a horror movie" with "blood everywhere". Mr Matta said to his wife: "My life is over. Now you will suffer as I am suffering."

He later told police: "I am an executioner... I came here to kill the man."

During the subsequent court case prosecutor Martin Meeke QC said: "If there is something romantic in the way people who had once been in love finding each other after so many years, the event was also the beginning of a tragedy."

Friends Reunited declined to comment on the case.