ADAM Whelehan has been found guilty of murdering 23-year-old Natalie Jarvis in Swanley Village.

It took jurors at Maidstone Crown Court just four hours to find Whelehan guilty while clearing co-defendant Tom Fuller.

There were cheers in the courtroom as the verdict was delivered from members of Miss Jarvis' family, who have attended every hour of the two-week trial.

Tom Fuller stepped free from the courtroom and walked out of the main entrance at Maidstone Crown Court after more than six months in custody.

When asked by reporters whether he wished to comment on the jury's decision, he shook his head and walked by.

Alongside his family and former girlfriend Stephanie Kinchlea, who had been sat in the public gallery, he walked to a car park nearby and was driven away.

Whelehan, 23, of Roseberry Gardens, Sidcup, stabbed his girlfriend Miss Jarvis to death with a silver multi-tool in a country lane car park in Button Street on October 3 last year.

He killed her because he wanted to end their relationship, which began in June last year, and saw murder as the only way out.

From the start of the trial, he accepted he stabbed Miss Jarvis to death but claimed he did so in lawful self-defence.

Fuller, also 23, of Oakley Drive, Eltham, hid in the boot of Whelahan’s red Renault Clio and was accused of acting as a "getaway driver" but has now been cleared.

During the trial, jurors heard how Whelehan picked up Miss Jarvis from her home at around 10.30pm.

He drove to Button Street before getting out with Miss Jarvis at 10.50pm.

By the time he returned to the car, then driven by Fuller, she lay dead.

Miss Jarvis was found face-down by a passer-by on the ground in Swanley Village Road after suffering more than 20 stab wounds In the months leading up to her death, Miss Jarvis told Whelehan she was pregnant with his child after the pair had sex on just one occasion in his car in July.

A post-mortem examination following her death revealed Miss Jarvis was not pregnant at the time she died.

In his closing argument, prosecutor Ian Acheson described Whelehan as a "cold and calculated executioner."

He said: "This was a callous stabbing Adam Whelehan had planned and that he executed.

"And when he wasn’t lying before you - literally trying to get away with murder - he has at various stages admitted to the cold emotionless execution."

Mr Acheson continued: "This young man had persuaded himself there was no way out of this pregnancy problem.

"There was no way out of this, except for one of the two of them to die.

"And when he decided there was no point killing himself over a girl, it was her."

Whelehan's version of events described how Miss Jarvis "lunged" at him with the multi-tool that he kept in his glove box.

Giving evidence in court, he said: "I don’t know how many times she lunged at me with the multi-tool before I was actually cut.

"I remember managing to grasp hold of it and there was a struggle and the next thing I knew she was crawling on the floor.

"Natalie was a lot bigger and stronger than me. I was scared. She was trying to hurt me, if not kill me.

"I was trying to get her off me. I was struggling and then don’t know what happened then."

The jury of eight men and four women heard a series of messages exchanged between Whelehan and his best friend Fuller where they discussed Miss Jarvis’ death.

The messages formed an "elaborate fantasy" which eventually became a reality.

But Whelehan insisted the messages were "banter" and "just letting off steam."

Fuller said he decided to get into Whelehan’s car so he could hear if Miss Jarvis made insulting comments about his deceased father.

In the witness box, he repeatedly insisted he "froze" and was unable to get out of the car.

He said: "I made a bad decision that’s cost someone their life."

Whelehan will be sentenced tomorrow.