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Man guilty of killing ex-partner and child with machete | Man guilty of killing ex-partner and child with machete |
(35 minutes later) | |
A man who beat his ex-partner to death with a machete, hammer and screwdriver and slit his baby daughter's throat has been convicted of murder. | |
Roland McKoy, a 54-year-old handyman, killed Valerie Forde, 45, and 22-month-old Jahzara at the family home in Hackney, north London, on 31 March. | Roland McKoy, a 54-year-old handyman, killed Valerie Forde, 45, and 22-month-old Jahzara at the family home in Hackney, north London, on 31 March. |
The brutal attack was witnessed by Mrs Forde's 28-year-old daughter Carrise. | The brutal attack was witnessed by Mrs Forde's 28-year-old daughter Carrise. |
McKoy, who was found lying with the bodies, had denied the murders. | McKoy, who was found lying with the bodies, had denied the murders. |
Verdict cheered | |
He attacked Mrs Forde as she got ready to leave for work on 31 March - the deadline she had set for him to move out of the three-bedroom terrace, the Old Bailey heard. | |
Afterwards, he drank bleach and left a perverse note on Mrs Forde's face which was stained with Jahzara's blood, blaming her for what happened. | |
Following a series of threats Mrs Forde, a community project manager, texted her sister in January saying: "Just looking at his face and body language I have to be very very careful and pray for my safety each day and night." | |
She also wrote: "… feeling a bit scared of him but I continue to be guided by my angels…" | |
Jurors were reduced to tears as the messages were read out and a man in the public gallery stormed out while McKoy was in the witness box. | |
The jury took two and a half hours to convict him. | |
The verdict was greeted with cheers and clapping from the public gallery in court. | |
McKoy's legal team had argued he was acting in self-defence against Mrs Forde, inflicting at least 30 separate injuries, having found their daughter dead. | |
Community 'destroyed' | |
But prosecutor Ed Brown QC said he had concocted a fictitious version of events. | |
"It is plain that the defendant had attacked Valerie Forde with the hammer, slashed her face and neck with the machete and stabbed her multiple times with the screwdriver," he said. | |
"It is equally clear from the evidence that the defendant used that same machete to cut Jahzara's neck from one side to the other. Each attack was a brutal one." | |
Mrs Forde's older daughter Carrise, 28, had listened on an open phone line in horror to the screams of her half sister while McKoy was attacking their mother. | |
The court heard the couple's relationship had begin to deteriorate in 1999 after Mrs Forde discovered McKoy was still married to another woman, by whom he had two children. | |
Mrs Forde's family said the lives of Mrs Forde, Jahzara, their friends and the wider community in Hackney had been "destroyed". | |
Mrs Forde has previously contacted the police about McKoy and the Met's directorate of professional standards has referred the case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating. |