18 years for killer stepfather

A child killer who beat his five-year-old stepson to death in a park because he lost his trainer has been  jailed for 18 years.

Marvyn Iheanacho, 39, punched child model Alex Malcolm repeatedly against a metal fence as the boy pleaded for his life and then attacked his mother when she tried to call an ambulance.

Lilya Breha was left to secretly Google: ‘When to call a doctor after child hits head’ as Iheanacho calmly smoked a cigarette and denied Alex treatment for two hours.

The boy never regained consciousness and died two days later from a bleed on the brain.

Iheanacho had previously beaten Alex for being car sick in a cab and kicked a 13 year-old boy in the head when he tried to protect his mother from Iheanacho.

Ukrainian Ms Breha had known him for less than a year before he killed Alex.

They started seeing each other while Iheanacho was in jail for another assault on a woman.

Judge Mark Dennis, QC said the jury had rejected Iheanacho’s defence that the injuries to Alex were accidental: ‘Those injuries were caused by a fit of anger…it was a sudden and wholly unnecessary loss of temper which started outside the park gateway by a builders yard.

‘When you realised what you had done your thoughts and actions were not to help the child but to protect yourself.

‘Only you know the true position of what happened.

‘There deceased was a young and tender age, he was defenceless.

‘He had done nothing to justify any loss of temper.

‘All the child was heard to say was in a soft voice “I’m sorry, I’m sorry”.

The judge said Iheanacho’s previous convictions ‘reflect a disturbing pattern of violent behaviour’, adding: ‘It was perhaps a matter of time before such violence ended in a tragedy like this occurred.’

Iheanacho took Alex to Mountsfield Park in Hither Green, southeast London on November 20 last year.

The little boy was happily chasing foxes over as it became dark and his shoe slipped from his foot.

Witness Sarah Strugnell remembered Alex as ‘a beautiful boy with long eye lashes’ being asked: ‘Where are your shoes?’

Iheanacho was then heard to say: ‘You are f***ing joking’ and started punching Alex with such sickening force that the witness thought she could hear ‘sparring’

Alex sobbed: ‘I’m sorry’ repeatedly but Iheanacho did not stop until the boy was unconscious.

Iheanacho carried his limp body through Catford to a taxi stand where he took a cab back home despite Lewisham Hospital being just minutes away.

Iheanacho asked Ms Breha to meet him at the front door as he brought Alex home.

‘I saw him holding Alex like a baby,’ she said

‘He had no shoe and I just started screaming the moment I saw Alex.’

She added: ‘Alex was unconscious and his face looked disgusting.’

A struggle then broke out in the flat, with Iheanacho blocking her from calling an ambulance, saying: ‘Keep your f***ing mouth shut.’

Paramedics were eventually called out to Miss Breha’s Bromley home at 20:30 and Alex was rushed to Lewisham Hospital.

A post-mortem revealed 22 separate areas of bruising and an internal abdominal impact injury.

Throughout the night Iheanacho gave conflicting accounts of what happened, telling paramedics he fell from a climbing frame, doctors that he tripped, and police that he fell from an grass embankment.

Iheanacho has an appalling criminal record and has carried out six different attacks on five ex-partners.

He struck a shop keeper with a hammer and a wooden chair when raiding a jewellers in 2001.

The manager had tried to fend him away with a the chair Iheanacho and repeatedly smashed him over the head with it.

In 2010 Iheanacho attacked a 13-year-old boy, punching and kicking him in the head as he tried to protect his mother from the attacker.

In 2012 he knocked an ex-girlfriend unconscious after she refused to lend him his phone, with her requiring surgery to fix her jaw.

A year later he throttled his new partner when she told him he could have a duplicate of son’s birth certificate instead of the original.

Iheanacho had once cheated death when a gunman shot him in the chest in Brixton in 2002.

Police arrested an 18-year-old for the shooting but the prosecution could not prove he was the gunman and later offered no evidence at the Old Bailey.

Iheanacho, of Wesley Avenue, Hounslow, was convicted of murder and jailed for life, with a minimum period of 18 years before he is eligible for parole.
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