Greenwich hotel murder: Serial abuser guilty of killing girlfriend

Khloemae Loy died from a single stab wound to the neck

A "serial abuser of women" has been found guilty of murdering his girlfriend at a south-east London hotel.

Convicted rapist Taye Francis used a kitchen knife to stab Khloemae Loy, 23, in the neck on 5 July 2020.

Old Bailey jurors heard the attack took place in a room at the Holiday Inn Express hotel in Greenwich.

Francis will be sentenced by Judge Mark Lucraft QC at the same court on 6 December.

The 40-year-old was described in court as a "violent, self-obsessed man" with a history of drug-taking, who had been convicted of kidnapping and raping a former girlfriend.

Police investigators branded Francis as a "pathological liar and serial abuser of women" who had spent 20 years controlling vulnerable partners.

"Our case is that he killed her in anger. It was murder," prosecutor Kate Lumsdon QC said.

Taye Francis spent 20 years controlling vulnerable partners before killing Khloemae Loy in July 2020

In 2001, under his original name of Ashley Wyatt, he was convicted of abducting an ex-girlfriend on her lunch break and raping her on a train and again at a house.

He received a six-year sentence for kidnap, rape and possession of a bladed article, and was placed on the sex offenders register for life.

Jurors heard in 2013 Francis was convicted of assaulting another woman and later sending her a message saying "I'm gonna kill you, gonna stab you in the neck and get your family."

Three years later Francis was again convicted of assaulting an ex-partner during a domestic dispute.

Ms Loy was found dead in a Holiday Inn room on the Greenwich Peninsula

He had met Ms Loy at a pub close to Croydon College where she was studying in 2017, the court heard.

On 4 July last year the couple booked into the Greenwich Holiday Inn Express.

The following morning Francis called 999 and told the operator; "Quick, my girlfriend's dying - I've stabbed her in the neck."

While still on the line to the ambulance operator, Francis sent a photo to solicitors of Ms Loy lying dead on the bed with the message "I've killed my girlfriend."

'Spiral of abuse'

He denied murder, claiming his responsibility for the killing was diminished by a medical condition.

Emma Currie, from the Crown Prosecution Service, described Ms Loy as an innocent victim who was "caught in a spiral of abuse".

She added: "Francis was not only controlling, violent and angry - he was also utterly paranoid and walked around wearing a stab vest.

"As a registered sex offender, he was convinced everyone knew about this and was out to get him."