Central Criminal Court Crown Court Sentencing Results

Romaine Williams-Reid, 18, of Erith Crescent, Romford, orchestrated the unprovoked attack on 1 May 2019 in Somerford Grove, Hackney, by contacting the victim's friend to locate him and alerting co-defendants to their position. He met the 16-year-old co-defendants at the park and participated in the gang-related assault, which stemmed from prior hostility and false gang accusations. During the attack, the victim was stabbed nine times, including a fatal wound to the lung, and died at the scene. Williams-Reid fled on a victim's bike, discarded clothing, and changed his appearance. He was arrested on 5 May 2019.

On 1 January 2007, Mohammed Abdul Shakur, a Bengali illegal immigrant and curry house chef, murdered his wife, 26, and their daughters, five and six, in their home at 10 Nelson Street, East Ham, east London. The killings followed an argument about his immigration status and financial contributions, after his wife refused to help renew his visa. Shakur smothered the victim with a pillow, strangled one daughter with a white sock, and fractured the other daughter's skull. He had a history of domestic violence, including assaulting his pregnant wife in June 2001. After the murders, he fabricated a story about his father's death, fled to Bangladesh on 5 January 2007, and threatened the victim's sister. He was arrested in India on 23 May 2012 and extradited to the UK in April 2020.

David McCorkell, 54, murdered the 61-year-old victim at her ground-floor flat in Oakwood Avenue, Beckenham, south London, on 18 July 2019. He bludgeoned and strangled her in an act of savage violence, inflicting 71 injuries to her head and neck. She was found unresponsive by police after neighbours raised concerns. McCorkell had met her three months earlier and visited her daily, during which time she became painfully thin and complained of ill-treatment. He had a extensive criminal history, including prior convictions for assault, burglary, and possession of weapons, and was on licence after a previous life sentence.

Kirill Belorusov strangled his girlfriend, the victim, a 34-year-old French filmmaker, with a ligature for four minutes in her flat in Kew, southwest London, on or around 2 March 2019. He had been gaslighting her for 10 years, manipulating her emotionally and financially by pretending to have cancer, mocking her appearance, and promising a new home that did not exist. After the murder, he bound her hands and feet, wrapped her body in bin bags, and buried it in a shallow grave in her garden. He then used her phone to send misleading messages and watched pornography at the scene.

Samantha Ford drowned her 23-month-old twins in the bath to avenge her husband ending their marriage. She was suffering from a significant psychiatric illness at the time, leading to the acceptance of a plea of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.

Jack Renshaw, a neo-Nazi, plotted to murder the Labour MP by buying a 19-inch Gladius machete with the intention of replicating the 2016 murder of an MP. He also made threats to kill Detective Constable Victoria Henderson. The plan was exposed by a whistleblower, who informed anti-racism group Hope not Hate, which alerted the police. The plot occurred in 2018, leading to his arrest and trial in 2019.

David Thomas, 74, lay in wait for his estranged wife the victim, 69, at their matrimonial home in Herne Hill, south London, on July 24, 2018. After she left him upon discovering her affair with Victor Cassar, whom she reconnected with via Facebook, Thomas stabbed her multiple times, including twice to the chest and to the head, and struck her over the head several times with a shillelagh, breaking it. He confronted her demanding to know where she lived, and neighbours heard her screaming and wailing followed by thudding sounds. Thomas claimed he was in a daze after she taunted him about her sex life and their daughters, but the judge found he lost his temper and initiated the attack.

In 1990, Russell Bishop kidnapped a seven-year-old girl from the street near her Brighton home, molested her, strangled her, and left her for dead. The girl survived the attack. Bishop was convicted based on evidence from the incident.

Theodore Johnson battered and strangled the victim to death at his home in Dartmouth Park Hill, Upper Holloway, north London, on 15 December 2016. The victim, aged 51, had ended their relationship in autumn 2016 and started seeing another man. She visited Johnson's flat to help him with a passport application at the Jamaican embassy. Johnson attacked her brutally with a claw hammer, striking her head at least six times, causing blunt force trauma, and then strangled her with a dressing gown belt. The attack was motivated by jealousy and anger over her unwillingness to reconcile. Johnson had been discharged from a secure hospital in 1997 under conditions including disclosing any relationships, but he concealed his year-long relationship with the victim, which began in 1996 during unescorted leave. He was arrested on 19 January 2017 after attempting suicide by throwing himself in front of a train at Cheshunt station, resulting in the loss of both arms.

Bradley Clifford mowed down a moped carrying the victim, 18, and his friend, before beating the victim to death in a rage after his red Ford Mustang was damaged. The incident followed a confrontation between two groups of young people outside a bar shortly after 3am on 5 August 2017. The victim's friend weaved into oncoming traffic and tried to mount the pavement to escape, but he and the victim, riding pillion, were thrown into the air when Bradley Clifford crashed into them. As the victim lay dying in the road, Bradley Clifford leapt out of his car and beat him to death.

David Harris, a 68-year-old retired TV producer, attempted to hire hitmen to murder his 69-year-old partner to access her £800,000 inheritance and fund his relationship with his 28-year-old lover Ugne Cekaviciute. He offered up to £250,000 to at least six potential hitmen, instructing them to stage the murder as a car-jacking, mugging, or accident, such as while she walked to church or left her country club. Harris claimed it was research for a thriller novel 'Too Close to Kill', but no evidence of writing existed. He was arrested on 12 November 2016 after approaching an undercover officer. The plot unfolded from late 2011 after Harris became infatuated with Cekaviciute, whom he met in a brothel, and began using the victim's money to support the affair while growing frustrated with her.

Thomas Mair attacked and murdered the victim, a Labour MP, outside the victim's constituency surgery in Birstall on June 16, 2016. He shot the victim multiple times and stabbed the victim, reloading his weapon during the assault. Eyewitnesses reported the attacker warning bystanders and fleeing the scene calmly, with one witness making a 999 call describing the chaos.

Ben Butler murdered his six-year-old daughter the victim on 28 October 2013 by inflicting catastrophic head injuries, likely by hitting her with a blunt object or throwing her against a wall, at their home in Sutton, southwest London. He had a history of violence, including prior convictions for assaulting the victim as a baby, which were later quashed. Butler staged the scene to mimic an accident, delayed calling for help, and involved his partner in the cover-up. He also subjected the victim to other abuses, such as an untreated broken shoulder.

Arthur Simpson-Kent murdered his partner and their two sons, aged 8 and 4, in their home in Erith, South-East London, shortly after his partner received a terminal diagnosis of motor neurone disease in December 2015. He attacked his partner with a small axe in the kitchen while she was bent over, striking her head repeatedly until she was unconscious and dead. He then killed each boy in turn with heavy, deliberate, repeated blows from a blunt instrument and by cutting and stabbing them with a bladed weapon. He wrapped the bodies in plastic, buried them in the garden, cleaned the house, partially painted to cover bloodstains, and sent fake messages from his partner's phone to relatives. He fled to Ghana, where he was arrested on January 9, 2016, and extradited to Britain.

Dempsey Nibbs killed his wife on 10-11 April 2014 in their flat in Shoreditch, east London, after discovering her infidelity. He battered her with an iron bar, decapitated her with a knife because her eyes remained open after death, and attempted to flush her head down the toilet, later smashing it with a hammer. He called the police and tried to kill himself upon their arrival. The attack was motivated by jealousy, revenge, and anger over her affairs and financial actions.

Paul Mallin killed his ex-girlfriend and her 86-year-old fiancé in brutal circumstances at Fernways sheltered housing unit in Cecil Road, Ilford, on September 5, 2015. Motivated by anger over her choosing her fiancé over him, Mallin had previously stabbed her fiancé's wall with a knife, spat at him, and searched online more than 300 times for poisons, including 'poison that doesn’t show up in an autopsy' and references to 'Ricin' from the TV show Breaking Bad. On the night of the incident, he attempted to force entry into her fiancé's flat armed with a knife and a meat cleaver, stabbing her fiancé multiple times while he tried to defend the door, and then stabbing her, who was disabled and witnessed the attack from her armchair.

Derek Johnston was part of a gang that kidnapped a man in his 30s from a barber's shop in west London on June 18, 2015, due to an alleged debt. The victim was transported to a house in St Lukes Close, Uxbridge, where he endured binding with electrical wires, beatings with an iron bar and a computer monitor, stabbings with kitchen knives, and burns from heated metal forks over three days, ending with a police intervention on June 20, 2015.

Darren Vassell, along with others, kidnapped a man in his 30s from a barber's shop in west London on June 18, 2015, over a claimed debt of £2,500. The victim was driven around, threatened, and taken to a house in St Lukes Close, Uxbridge, where he was bound, beaten with an iron bar, stabbed with kitchen knives, and burned with heated metal forks over three days. The ordeal ended with a police raid on June 20, 2015.

Jamal McLaughlin was involved in the initial kidnapping of a man in his 30s from a barber's shop in west London on June 18, 2015, over a £2,500 debt. He helped bundle the victim into a van and drive him around while demanding payment, leading to the subsequent torture at a house in St Lukes Close, Uxbridge, which lasted three days until police rescue on June 20, 2015.

Jason Conroy strangled the victim, an 18-year-old resident, at Alexandra House care home in Bristol in October 2014. Conroy had a history of violent and sexualised behaviour, including prior attempts to kill others, and was moved to the care home despite known risks. The killing was sexually motivated, and he was caught and sentenced for the crime.

In March 2013, over a span of 10 days, Joanne Dennehy brutally stabbed and concealed the bodies of the first victim, the second victim and the third victim in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. She subsequently fled with her accomplice Gary Stretch, randomly selecting new victims, which included dog walkers the fourth victim and the fifth victim. Both men were left to die by the killer, but miraculously survived.

Joanna Christine Dennehy, the Cambridgeshire 'ditch killer', murdered three men during a 10-day rampage in March 2013. She stabbed the first victim in the heart after luring him with sexually suggestive texts, discarded his body in a wheelie bin, and showed it to a 14-year-old girl, confessing she found murder 'moreish'. She then killed her housemate, the second victim, with a pocket knife, texting an accomplice 'Oops, I've done it again'. On the same day, she murdered the third victim by luring him with promises of sexual favours, stabbing him, dressing his body in a black sequined dress, and posing it in a ditch with his backside exposed to humiliate him. She committed the murders to emulate Bonnie and Clyde and for 'entertainment', targeting only men. She also attempted to murder two dog walkers in Hereford within nine minutes, taking one victim's dog.

On August 6th, 2013, Alex Henry was shopping with friends when two friends were confronted by two brothers and two others. Henry approached, picked up a dropped mobile, threw it at one attacker, and attempted to punch another. His friend Cameron Ferguson stabbed one brother fatally and wounded the other brother. Henry and Janhelle Grant-Murray were convicted of murder and wounding.

On 10 October 2011, Nicole Thomas, who had a prior manslaughter conviction for killing her mother in 2005 on grounds of diminished responsibility, suffered a relapse. She left Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, travelled to Bexleyheath, purchased a knife at Asda, attempted to slash one victim at a bus stop causing injury, then entered a butchers' shop to take another knife, and attacked another victim in a parkland area, inflicting fatal wounds to the face, head, and neck. The second victim died at the scene. Thomas admitted the acts but claimed diminished responsibility due to schizoaffective disorder or schizophrenia; the prosecution argued personality disorder. She was arrested shortly after, having stated she thought she had killed someone.

Fuad Awale was convicted after shooting two teenagers, one victim and another unnamed teen, in the head in an execution-style killing over drugs.

Sandra King, 62, of Romford, plunged a knife through the heart of her cousin, 68-year-old cancer victim Jacqueline Oberlin, in a drunken row at the victim's flat in Dagenham in February 2012. King pretended the death was a suicide due to the victim's fear of upcoming surgery. She was trapped by her own words on the 999 call recording where she admitted 'I f*****g killed her' and 'She f*****g deserved it' after forgetting to replace the receiver.

Mohamed Boudjenane, an illegal immigrant from Algeria, raped a Filipino nanny, shaved off her hair, and falsely accused her of an affair with his neighbour the victim. On February 3, 2012, he murdered the victim by striking him in the head with a hammer and decapitated the body with a meat cleaver. He was captured on CCTV carrying the head in a plastic bag on a bus to the Regents Canal in Maida Vale, west London, on February 5, 2012, where he disposed of it. The headless corpse was discovered wrapped in a duvet behind a supermarket in Kilburn on February 6, 2012. Boudjenane fled to Derby but was arrested on February 7, 2012. He claimed no memory of the events due to depression and hearing voices.

On Christmas Day 2010, the 15-year-old victim was beaten and drowned by his sister and her partner Eric Bikubi in the London borough of Newham after being accused of 'kindoki' or witchcraft. The victim endured four days of torture with knives, sticks, metal bars, a hammer, and pliers. He was forced into a bath for ritual cleansing where he drowned. The victim's siblings were also beaten but survived after 'confessing' to being witches.

On Christmas Day 2010, the 15-year-old victim was beaten and drowned by his sister Magalie Bamu and her partner Eric Bikubi in the London borough of Newham after being accused of 'kindoki' or witchcraft. The victim endured four days of torture with knives, sticks, metal bars, a hammer, and pliers. He was forced into a bath for ritual cleansing where he drowned. The victim's siblings were also beaten but survived after 'confessing' to being witches.

Krzysztof Szafisz, along with Piotr Kulik, murdered the victim, 38, in December 2010 during a dispute about money for scrap metal in a derelict building in Barnfield Road, Wembley. The altercation involved kicking and slapping the victim, leading to his death from head injuries.

Piotr Kulik murdered the victim, 38, in December 2010 after a disagreement about money for helping to strip and sell scrap metal from a derelict building in Barnfield Road, Wembley. The argument turned violent, with Kulik kicking and slapping the victim, resulting in fatal head injuries.