Man jailed for 35 years for killing ex-partner and child

Roland McKoy claimed he acted in self-defence

A man who beat his ex-partner to death with a machete, hammer and screwdriver and slit his baby daughter's throat has been jailed for a minimum of 35 years for 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.

The brutal attack was heard by Mrs Forde's 28-year-old daughter Carrise.

McKoy, who was found lying with the bodies, had denied the murders.

'Monstrous egotism'

He attacked Mrs Forde, inflicting at least 30 separate injuries, 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 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 she was "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. They took two and a half hours to convict him.

The verdict was greeted with cheers and clapping from the public gallery.

Judge Charles Wide sentenced McKoy to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 35 years.

He told him: "You did it out of spite and resentment that Valerie at long last had the strength and resolve to say that enough is enough and you had to go.

"You thought she was going to back down but she didn't and that was an affront to your monstrous egotism."

McKoy's legal team had argued he was acting in self-defence against Mrs Forde 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 daughter Carrise had listened on an open phone line to the screams of her half sister while McKoy was attacking their mother.

The court heard the couple's relationship had begun to deteriorate in 1999 when Mrs Forde discovered McKoy was still married to another woman, by whom he had two children.

Mrs Forde's family said her life and that of 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.