Bexleyheath killer Nicola Edgington loses appeal bid

Nicola Edgington had been sectioned after she killed her mother in 2005

A psychiatric patient who stabbed a woman to death in a London street has lost a bid to appeal against her conviction and sentence.

Nicola Edgington, 33, of Greenwich, killed Sally Hodkin and tried to kill Kerry Clark in Bexleyheath in 2011.

She was found guilty in March of murder and attempted murder and ordered to serve at least 37 years of a life term.

The Court of Appeal denied her leave to appeal against her conviction and her "excessive" minimum sentence.

In 2005 Edgington had stabbed her mother to death at her home in Forest Row, East Sussex.

But following treatment in a medium secure psychiatric facility for schizophrenia with emotionally unstable personality traits, she was released to live in the community.

'Consistent and calculated'

In court, Lord Justice Treacy, Mr Justice Green and Sir David Maddison dismissed her applications for leave to appeal against her conviction and sentence, but said that the 510 days she had spent on remand in custody had to be taken into account.

In the hours before the 2011 attack, Edgington called emergency services four times asking for help, saying she was hearing voices again and that she was going to kill somebody.

She was taken to a local hospital in south-east London, but walked out after becoming annoyed at being kept waiting.

She tried to stab Ms Clark, 22, shortly before attacking Mrs Hodkin, 58, with a knife stolen from a butcher.

At her sentencing the Recorder of London, Judge Brian Barker told Edgington that her behaviour had been "consistent and calculated".

Along with the life sentence for Mrs Hodkin's murder, Edgington also received a minimum sentence of 20 years for the attempted murder of Ms Clark.