Artist covered in bruises days after crazed girlfriend flies into rage that kills him

Chilling images show the ordeal suffered by talented artist James Self, 47, at the hands of crazed girlfriend Polly Murphy after she flew into a rage

A talented artist is pictured covered in bruises just days after his abusive girlfriend inflicted horrifying injuries that would leave him dead.

Haunting images show the ordeal suffered by 47-year-old James Self at the hands of crazed Polly Murphy. Murpy flew into a rage after James gave her a birthday present during a weekend away.

The 42-year-old subjected him to a frenzied two-hour assault, the Mirror reports.

And after Murphy was jailed for life for murder, the Mirror reveals messages James sent to his mum days before his death, begging: “I want to fix things and make sure she’s OK.” His heartbroken mother, Ashe Smith, 80, told us: “James bore the stigma of being a victim of domestic abuse. He was ashamed. He wouldn’t ask for help and that’s why he died. I don’t want anyone else to go through that.

“I’ve realised now that female on male domestic abuse is far more common than we think. James saying he felt embarrassed and humiliated is key to all this. Men find it so difficult to speak up. Men can come forward, and they should. There’s no shame in holding up your hand.”

Murphy – who had a previous 2009 conviction for assault causing actual bodily harm to former partner – launched her final fatal attack on James in November 2023 after he took her on a birthday trip to Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, and gave her a birthday present. In a horrifying two-hour assault in Smugglers’ Cove hotel, she battered him and stamped on his body leaving him with eight fractured ribs, serious internal injuries and bruising on every part of his body.

Instead of calling for help, she fled the room in the dead of night and spun a web of lies to hide what she had done. It took her 18 hours to call 999, before paramedics found James in the blood-splattered hotel room. When paramedics – who said there “was blood everywhere – on the wall, floor ceilings and bedding” – asked if there had been a fight, James replied: “No, she’s been hitting me – it was one-sided and I didn’t retaliate.”

Ashe said: “She’s completely devoid of any empathy, any sympathy. She left him there, all beaten up in the hotel room. She walked away to buy booze, to send messages to her ex boyfriend and send him music on Spotify It’s psychotic leaving someone with their head smashed in, with a brain bleed, bruises all over his body, and with broken ribs. The point is, you wouldn’t leave a stranger like that. Not someone who loved you.”

Murphy refused to answer questions when she was arrested or explain how James had been left with the injuries. But detectives recovered 20,000 text messages cataloguing psychological abuse Murphy meted out on her fawning partner. They painted a picture of a doting boyfriend whose love was met with poisonous manipulation.

In an exchange sent in October 2023 – just a month before the violent attack that led to James’ death – Murphy warned him: “I will hunt you and kill you. If I ever see you again, I will kill you.” Ashe said: “They were venomous, that’s the word. They were really venomous, and it was very hard to listen to.

“They’re heartbreaking, the verbal abuse, I would think, wasn’t obviously as damaging as the physical abuse, but it must have been very psychologically damaging. James ended up saying sorry about things, which it didn’t warrant any apology. She somehow managed to make him feel that he was in the wrong all the time. That’s an old trick.”

Despite the abuse, James showed nothing but love right until his final breath. As he lay in hospital, the devastated copywriter begged police not to pursue Murphy for the attack, saying: “I suppose she’s my ex-girlfriend now.” Six weeks after the attack James – whose work took him across the globe and were published in Time Out magazine – was discharged from hospital but instantly fell ill.

He was rushed back to an emergency unit where he slipped into a coma and eventually died. Ashe sad: “I was devastated. We did have a very loving relationship, as I do with all my sons, I’m lucky to have them. I’m lucky to have had James and I’m privileged that I was his mother. We had 47 years of him and for that I’m grateful, because he really did bring something good into our lives.”

James first met Polly when she was just 16 and he worked in high-end London stores Harrods and Liberty with her mum designing window displays. But they struck up a romance in April 2023 when they went to a friend’s memorial asnd began a relationship.

Ashe said: “I think he was very loved up to begin with which was lovely. I was very pleased for him. He said they had very similar interests. She’s an artist like he was, and they’re interested in literature and cultural things. So they had things in common, which was nice, and I was really pleased for him.”

But almost immediately Murphy began her manipulation. When James and Murphy spent the weekend with Ashe and his step-dad, electrical engineer Donald Smith, 82, she smothered his personality with her domineering personality. Ashe said: “James was a reticent person, he always paused before he said anything. He thought about what he was going to say.

“But during the visit she never stopped talking from the minute she arrived here until they left. She was just absolutely manic. We thought she was a bit strange, but we wanted it to work. If your child’s with someone and seems happy, you want to them to be happy, don’t you?”

Ashe said: “James brought his dog with him and it became clear during the visit that Polly really wanted him to get rid of it. I didn’t see it then as a red flag but now I realise it was part of the process of separating him from people and things that he loved.”

James messaged his mum every day through the summer of 2023, but Ashe said friends noticed he was growing distant. “He went from happy and easy going to sad and introverted,” said Ashe. He confided in his mother that Murphy had a habit of flying into violent rages – but Ashe says James was blinded by love.

She said: “He said she was incredibly jealous and had a raging temper on her. He could never be sure what mood she was going to be in, and when she was ‘on one’ she was terrible. I asked him if the relationship was really worth it if it was such hard work, but he told me he loved her and really cared about her.”

Weeks before the fatal attack, James emailed Ashe telling her that Murphy had confiscated his phone. “A week later she finally returned it to him – by throwing it in his face, minus the SIM card, leaving him with a nasty gash over his eye,” says Ashe, who is also an artist and mural painter who lives in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

And in private Murphy was manipulation James, forcing him to take on a vegan diet and using his problem with alcohol to control him. Part of her coercive control was to deny they were in a relationship. After their visit to James’ family home, she took offence to suggestion she was his girlfriend and became “erratic, volatile and threatening”.

Ashe – who said James was deeply affected after the sudden death of his father, Lawrence, 80, from a brain haemorrhage around 25 years ago – said that despite the abuse, James stayed with Polly and desperately wanted her love. Ashe said: “James always wanted to see the good in people. And I think he did with Polly.

“Everyone knew there was something wrong by that stage with her. But I think he thought because of his upbringing and his general attitude towards life and people, that if he loved her enough, he would help her. That was his approach to life.”

Murphy, from Highgate, North London, was initially charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent, but following Jame’s death on December 21 2023, was charged with murder. She denied the offence at Chelmsford Crown Court but was found guilty after a nine-week trial. This week the judge handing down a life sentence with a minimum term of 15 years.

Remarkably Ashe, who has two other sons, Duncan, 44, and Marcus, 54, and two grandchildren, says she feels no “hate” for Murphy. She even thought about taking her art material in prison. But she wants the Government to educate boys and girls in school about the “red flags” of domestic abuse.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal one in five men (21.8%) in 2024/25 said they have been a victim of domestic abuse in their lifetime – this equates to around 5.2 million. The figures for women were 29.6% and 7.3 million respectively. Men consist of 42% of all victims.

Ashe said: “She has ruined our life, but she has ruined her life too. There are no winners in this really, are there? She’s not a winner. We’re not winners. James certainly wasn’t a winner. And he was so lovely, he was such a really lovely, creative, kind, interesting person. I don’t feel revengeful. How long she serves in prison is irrelevant really. All we wanted was the jury to recognise what James went through and they did. We’re very grateful for that.”

For confidential support, call the 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Freephone Helpline on 0808 2000 247 or visit womensaid.co.uk. If you or your family have lost a friend or family member through fatal domestic abuse, AAFDA (Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse) can offer specialist and expert support and advocacy.