Post by Joanna on Jul 24, 2016 21:02:50 GMT -5
Usha Patel and Miles Donnelly
Judge Warns of the Dangers of Internet Dating
LONDON, U.K. – A judge has warned of the dangers of Internet dating after jailing a psychopath for life for the brutal murder of a woman he had met online. Usha Patel, 44, was ferociously beaten and strangled to death by Miles Donnelly, 35, after the pair organized to meet at her Cricklewood flat in north London. Patel was killed while her five-year-old son slept in the next room after the mother had invited the “lying and manipulative” man over on the night of October 7m 2015, after meeting through the online dating agency, Oasis.
Before their meeting, Donnelly had bombarded the mother, whom the Old Bailey heard was “desperate for a new relationship,” with sexually explicit messages before telling her, “I will treat you like a princess.” The pair drank alcohol on the night of the attack and they undressed before Donnelly, who has a history of violence when drunk or on drugs, killed his date by beating her ferociously about the head and strangling her. He then stabbed her in the stomach 13 times with a large bread knife before fleeing, leaving his underpants, socks, keys and a picture of his daughter behind. Patel’s body was discovered when her father, Gopal Patel, arrived to take his grandson to school, at which time the little boy told his grandfather, “Mummy’s not well.”
Donnelly managed to avoid the police for several days by hiding at the home of his neighbor, Rosie Ferrigno, 43, in Maida Vale. While hiding out in her home, he told her it was his birthday and he wanted to marry her and live in Ireland where they would have lots of babies. But when Ferrigno spurned his advances, he hit her on the back of the head. He was finally arrested October 11 after calling police himself.
Judge Rebecca Poulet, Queen’s Counsel, sentenced the murderer to life in prison with a minimum term of 23 years after Donnelly admitted to murder and causing actual bodily harm. “In my assessment, this case is a stark warning to anyone who plans to meet someone following limited internet contact,” the judge said. “That meeting must take place in a public place until one person feels they know something of the other. She [Patel] was clearly anxious to meet a new partner but she paid for that invitation with her life. However, it is clear there was mental and physical suffering inflicted on the victim before death.” then, addressing Donnelly, she added: “We, and her family, will never know why you did this terrible act.”
Donnelly has a string of convictions for threatening and abusive behavior, possession of a knife, criminal damage, robbery, racially aggravated assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm over an attack on a prison officer, battery and other acquisitive crimes. QC prosecutor Simon Denison told the court that a psychiatric assessment had found Donnelly to have a “psychopathic personality.” He said: “The evidence shows the defendant to have met and murdered Usha Patel, and assaulted Rosie Ferrigno, at a time when he was driven by compulsions to drink, take cocaine and have sex. He is a lying and manipulative man who was able to quickly gain Usha Patel’s trust and get her to agree to invite him to her home.” Denison said there was no suggestion the murderer had gone to the apratment to kill Ms Patel or that he gained sexual pleasure from violence. “But he did know, from his extensive criminal history, that he had a tendency to become violent when drunk and drugged,” he added, “and he must have known he presented a significant and serious danger to women.”
A string of WhatsApp messages recovered from Patel’s phone showed the pair had first made contact in April of last year. The prosecutor said they make “very sad reading,” and it was clear he [Donnelly] “wanted to meet up for sex and she was accepting of that.”
Donnelly later told Patel his mother had died, that he wanted more than just sex and was looking for a life partner, promising: “I will treat you like a princess.” The night before they first met face-to-face, Donnelly wrote: “If I come to you tonight … and you nurse me back to health … I will swear my life over to you … If you do that babe I will marry you tomorrow.”
The night of the date, Donnelly took two bottles of rosé wine to her flat and she bought bottles of Magners cider for Donnelly. “It is clear from all the evidence, from the scene and from her phone and his,” Denison contended, “that he went to her home that evening by arrangement, to drink and to have sex, and they drank, and they both undressed, and for a reason that she cannot tell us and he won’t tell us, he killed her and then left in a hurry. The defendant killed Usha Patel in her home that evening, possibly into the early hours of Thursday, after she had put [her son] to bed.”
A postmortem revealed Patel had been ferociously beaten, strangled and stabbed 13 times in the stomach and the cause of death was recorded as compression of the neck, blunt head injury and alcohol intoxication. There was no evidence a sexual assault had taken place.
In his plea, Donnelly claimed he killed Ms. Patel in a drunken rage following a brief argument. His barrister, David Hislop, blamed Donnelly’s state of mind and drinking on the recent death of his mother.
Source: The Sun, July 21, 2016.
