Woman jailed for second killing

13 July 2011 Last updated at 14:17 GMT Van Dungey did not give evidence at her trial A woman who served time for killing her partner has been jailed for life after being convicted of murdering another man at a party at her east London home.

Tracey Van Dungey, 43, of Sugden Way, Barking, stabbed Carl Everson, 41, three times in October 2010 in a "violent, drunken attack".

She had served 42 months for kicking and punching her partner Kevin Qui to death in 2004, the Old Bailey heard.

Judge Stephen Kramer ordered Van Dungey to serve a minimum of 19 years in jail.

The victim, who had been drinking at the party, was attacked by another woman, Kelly Gentry, 39, of Bedford Road, Tottenham, north London, before the fatal stabbing.

Mr Everson was beaten and stamped on and was unconscious on the living room floor when Van Dungey - who had personality disorders and was an alcoholic - "took advantage of his vulnerability and killed him", the court heard.

Gentry was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent

The judge told the killer: "I do not accept you did it as an act of mercy.

"You also appear to have removed his property."

Mr Everson, who had two children and three stepchildren, bled to death within two minutes, the court heard.

Gentry was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and was remanded for reports.

In a statement the victim's sister, Anita, said: "We have sat in court trying to find out what happened but neither defendant gave evidence.

"Instead we are left wondering."

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Charges over 'killing for £12'

12 June 2011 Last updated at 09:44 GMT Krzysztof Rusek had worked as a chef at the Ibis hotel in Lillie Road Three teenagers have been charged with murdering a man on his birthday for ?12 cash.

Chef Krzysztof Rusek was in a park in Fulham, celebrating his 30th birthday, early on Tuesday with his girlfiend and other friends when he was attacked.

A police spokesman said two of the robbers had their faces covered and just ?12 in total was taken.

Three males, all 17, will appear at court on 13 June accused of murder. The venue is yet to be confirmed.

After he was stabbed Mr Rusek was taken to hospital but later died there.

The Polish national had lived in the UK for the past eight years.

One of mr Rusek's friends was stabbed in the leg but was saved from serious injury by his wallet.

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Officer shocked at Afghan killing

19 May 2011 Last updated at 15:51 GMT The five soldiers had been mentoring and living with the Afghan police The killing of five UK soldiers at an Afghan checkpoint by a rogue policeman was "the single most shocking incident" a brigadier experienced there.

The men were shot at a checkpoint in Nad Ali, Helmand province, in 2009, when Brig James Cowan was the most senior Army officer in the country.

"I viewed the incident as appalling and I was deeply shocked," he told the inquest into their deaths.

He said it became the catalyst for changes to Afghan police training.

Warrant Officer Class 1 Darren Chant, 40, Sergeant Matthew Telford, 37, and Guardsman Jimmy Major, 18, from the Grenadier Guards, as well as Corporal Steven Boote, 22, and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith, 24, from the Royal Military Police, were gunned down on November 3, 2009.

Police training overhaul

Brig Cowan told the inquest in Trowbridge, Wiltshire: "I viewed the incident as appalling and I was deeply shocked.

"During the course of my tour 64 soldiers were killed but this was the single most shocking incident."

Of the aftermath, he said: "You do need to recover from that shock and you owe it to your soldiers to stay calm and to try and find the silver lining in the cloud."

He used the incident to push, via a commission set up by President Hamid Karzai to investigate the shootings, for changes to the Afghan National Police which was rife with drug taking, ill-discipline, insubordination and corruption.

He said a vetting system for the police was introduced, as well as compulsory drug testing and the use of biometrics.

Corrupt and ineffective police commanders were also removed from their posts and a police training college in Helmand Province was established, with graduates made to swear an oath of allegiance to Afghanistan on the Koran.

Brig Cowan said: "I cannot overstate the degree of shock and shame in Afghanistan at what had taken place. I cannot stress how shocking the incident was but also the degree of good that came as a result of those changes."

Heat injuries

The troops had been resting after a patrol at a police checkpoint and were not wearing their body armour or helmets - which are not compulsory to wear while off-duty.

Brig Cowan supported the decision by WO Chant to allow his men to remove their protection, saying: "I would have done the same, as he was only doing what was sensible to sustain his force for the next six months and not go down with heat injury."

Brig Cowan was asked whether it was "surprising" that WO Chant had not taken any action when two Afghan men were seen on a rooftop earlier in the day.

"Two men standing on a roof unarmed in a very, very densely populated area does not amount to a terrorist act.

"Indeed for him to have treated them as acting hostile would have been entirely wrong because the other part of what we were going is called 'courageous restraint' - the courage not to take action.

"If you had shot them and they had turned out to be two men fixing a roof, you would have not killed two terrorists but made 50 enemies."

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Guilty plea over student killing

3 June 2011 Last updated at 11:16 GMT Reamonn Gormley died after being stabbed in Blantyre A man has admitted killing 19-year-old student Reamonn Gormley but will face a murder trial after the Crown rejected his guilty plea to culpable homicide.

Daryn Maxwell, 22, admitted fatally stabbing the teenager in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, in February, during an attempted street robbery.

Co-accused Barry Smith, 19, pleaded not guilty to murdering the Glasgow University psychology student.

The trial is expected to start at the High Court in Glasgow later this year.

Mr Maxwell is charged with murdering Mr Gormley in Glasgow Road, Blantyre, on 1 February.

During an appearance at the High Court in Glasgow, Mr Maxwell pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of culpable homicide.

He admitted that, with his face partially masked, he presented a knife at Mr Gormley, demanded personal items, struggled with him and killed him by repeatedly striking him on the neck and body with a knife or similar instrument.

Plea rejected

His plea was rejected by the Crown and advocate depute Dorothy Bain QC, prosecuting, told the court: "This plea is not accepted."

Mr Maxwell was in the dock alongside co-accused Barry Smith, who pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Gormley.

Both men, who are in custody, deny a second charge of presenting a chisel at David McFall and robbing him of a wallet and its contents in Glasgow Road, Blantyre, on 1 February.

Judge Lord Matthews continued the case to a further preliminary hearing in August.

Mr Gormley was stabbed as he walked home from watching the Celtic v Aberdeen football match in a bar in his home town.

He died in Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride, soon after the attack.

More than 1,000 people took part in a march through the streets of Blantyre in February in memory of Mr Gormley.

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BA pilot jailed for killing wife

24 May 2011 Last updated at 13:54 GMT A pilot who battered his estranged wife to death with a claw hammer and buried her body has been cleared of murder.

The body of wealthy Ascot guesthouse owner Joanna Brown, 46, originally from the Isle of Man, was found on the Queen's Windsor Estate in Berkshire.

British Airways captain Robert Brown, 47, was convicted of obstructing a coroner from holding an inquest.

Brown had already admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility. He was jailed for 26 years.

The jury, at Reading Crown Court, returned its verdicts after nearly 15 hours of deliberation.

Pre-nuptial agreement

Sentencing Brown, Judge Mr Justice Cooke told him: "You intended to kill, you intended to conceal the body and to hide the evidence of the killing."

During the eight-day trial the court heard Brown had been consumed by anger during the course of his marriage, and a pre-nuptial agreement signed in 1999 had caused him "continuing resentment".

When his wife filed for divorce, it set in motion three years of protracted legal wrangling which was still continuing at the time he killed her.

The court had heard how on 31 October, last year, he drove to the former marital home, Tun Cottage in Ascot, to drop off their two children. He was armed with the claw hammer, jurors were told.

Police audio: Robert Brown rang police the day after he killed his wife

On arrival, and with the children out of sight, Brown hit his wife around the head with the hammer at least 14 times.

Jurors heard he then bundled the children into his car, wrapped his wife's body in plastic sheeting and dumped it in the boot before driving to woodland where he had already dug a hole and put down a makeshift coffin.

The couple's daughter later told police she heard her parents "hitting each other" before she watched "Dad put Mum in the car because he... hurt her".

Brown, of North Street, Winkfield, was arrested the following day after he contacted police.

Plastic crate

They had already been called to investigate the disappearance and discovered spots of blood on the drive and in the hallway of Mrs Brown's mock-Tudor mansion.

After confessing to the killing Brown led officers directly to the secluded burial site.

In the "robust plastic crate" - likened to those sold at DIY stores - investigators found Mrs Brown bound with a strap and garden ties.

On top of her body were rolls of tape, more garden ties, latex gloves, plastic footwear and two white paper overalls.

Brown had prepared the grave he used on the Queen's Windsor Estate before he killed his wife

An archaeologist told the court the grave could have been dug a "matter of weeks earlier", but Brown told police he had lowered the box into the earth as long ago as January 2009, as a symbolic gesture to bury the "sham" of his marriage.

Mrs Brown's body was found on its side inside the box. She had suffered extensive fractures to her skull and facial bones, along with a brain injury from which she would have had no hope of recovering, the court heard.

Brown said he killed his wife after an argument over schools.

He said he had been suffering from "severe stress" and an "abnormality of mental function" which substantially impaired his self-control.

Giving evidence Brown told the court he had "burst" with rage at his wife but could not remember how many times he hit her or explain why he attacked her.

He said: "I just lost it. I just burst and that's it. I just burst, and I can't remember.

"I just blew and the next thing I remember I was standing over Jo and there was blood all over the place."

Breaking down, he said to the public gallery: "I'm sorry darling, I'm really sorry."

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Youths guilty of station killing

16 May 2011 Last updated at 12:32 GMT Sofyen was chased to the ticket hall where he was stabbed repeatedly Five teenagers have been convicted of killing a 15-year-old boy at Victoria station in central London.

Sofyen Belamouadden, from Acton, west London, was chased and stabbed in the ticket hall of the Tube station.

Two teenagers have been found guilty of his murder in March 2010. Three others have been convicted of manslaughter.

The trial at the Old Bailey heard the rush-hour attack was planned on Facebook, and followed tensions between pupils from two west London schools.

'Merciless' attack

The trial heard some of the pupils saw the station as "home territory".

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So brazen and confident were his killers that they openly carried the various weapons that they used with them as they ran towards him and together hunted him down”

End Quote Mark Heywood QC Mark Heywood QC, prosecuting, said the "merciless" knife attack on the schoolboy took place in front of hundreds of commuters.

One member of the gang, Samuel Roberts, told the court that he joined in the violence on 25 March - captured on CCTV - simply because "everyone else was doing it".

Obi Nwokeh, 18, of Bermondsey, south-east London, and a 17-year-old were convicted of murder by unanimous jury verdicts.

Roberts, of Camberwell, south-east London, Adonis Akra, of Stockwell, of south London, both 18, and another 17-year-old were cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter.

Enoch Amoah, 18, of Camberwell, was cleared of both charges but convicted of violent disorder. All six defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.

Sofyen was confronted by a group with a sword at Victoria station before being chased into the Tube station where he was stabbed nine times, including to the lung and chest.

Mr Heywood said: "He was given no chance of life.

"So brazen and confident were his killers that they openly carried the various weapons that they used with them as they ran towards him and together hunted him down."

A number of other youths are due to face separate trials over the killing. All defendants will be sentenced following the conclusion of these cases.

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