A convicted rapist who battered his smelly common-
A convicted rapist who battered his smelly common-law wife to death after ordering her to take a bath because he found her ‘body odour annoying’ has been locked up for life at the Old Bailey.
Hulking Kristova Okwuegbunam, 33, left the naked body of petite partner Claudette Williams sprawled over her bed and then took their two children to Brent social services so they could be taken into care.
Shaven-headed Okwuegbunam, locked up a decade ago for the savage rape of a 13-year-old schoolgirl, confessed to a social worker: ‘She is dead.
It was my fault.
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He then claimed to police that his girlfriend’s fatal head injuries were caused by her falling ‘two or three times’ in the bathtub.
Okwuegbunam said he ‘told her to take a bath because she had not bathed for several days and her body odour was annoying him.
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Judge David Stokes, QC, sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment under the so-called two strikes and you’re out act.
The judge said the bully battered his girlfriend and then ‘humiliated’ her by ordering her to take a cold bath because her personal hygiene problem ‘offended’ him.
Okweugbunam had denied murder and the trial began in front of a jury.
But before any evidence was called the brute pleaded guilty to manslaughter and the Crown accepted his plea.
The cynical killer tried to change his plea back to not guilty today (tue) but the judge refused his application.
Okweugbunam admitted that he caused the subdural haemorrhage which led to Miss Williams’ death on January 16 this year at their home in Gainsborough Court, Llanover Road, Wembley.
And Anthony Leonard, QC, prosecuting said because the Crown could not prove an intention to cause really serious bodily harm they were content to accept the guilty plea to manslaughter.
It was revealed how in 1988 coward Okweugbunam was conditionally discharged for a year for punching his own mother in the eye.
Two years, in January 1990, he assaulted Miss Williams, 29, while they lived together on the North Circular Road, west London.
Miss Williams, who was only five feet tall, suffered serious facial bruising then as well as loosened teeth in what the prosecutor described as a ‘protracted domestic incident’ which continued out into the street.
Just days later Okweugbunam abducted a 13-year-old girl off the street as she made her way to school.
After threatening her with a large shard of jagged glass he forced her back to her his home, made her strip and raped her.
Okwuegbunam appeared at the Old Bailey in July 1990 and was given five years jail for the sex attack with two years consecutive for the assault on Miss Williams.
The court heard Miss Williams’ death earlier this year ‘was caused by an injury to the brain caused by two punches delivered to her face.
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When Okwuegbunam was interviewed by police he told them that he and Claudette had an argument in which he punched her eye and nose.
Okwuegbunam and Miss Williams had two children, Ricardo, 10 and Elisha, 12, but they were not living together at the time.
But he would regularly visit her at her housing association flat where he would stay on the sofa.
On January 16 neighbours in Gainsborough Court heard sounds of a ‘violent argument’ at 11pm which kept her daughter awake.
One witness whose children attended the same school as Miss Williams’ said she clearly heard Okwuegbunam shouting: ‘F—–g bitch’ and ‘Shut up!’.
The witness did not hear any words coming from Miss Williams.
On the next morning another neighbour heard ‘loud talking’ coming from number 14 – but couldn’t make out what was said.
That same day Okwuegbunam ‘in a state of shock’ took his two sobbing children to the social services office in Wembley High Street.
There a senior social worker who recognised the children asked whether their mother knew they were here.
Okwuegbunam said ‘she would not know’.
Suspecting Miss Williams was dead, the social worker asked ‘dazed and confused’ Okwuegbunam if Miss Williams was dead.
He replied: ‘Yes – it was my fault.
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The defendant said he tried to resuscitate her with a cold bath but it was too late.
Leaving the children behind, Okwuegbunam went to a William Hill bookmakers’ shop where he saw a friend.
Okwuegbunam told him: ‘I hit her last night.
She makes me so upset.
She’s dead.
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He then claimed that he punched Miss Williams because ‘she had told her son to tell lies to him’.
Meanwhile, police at Gainsborough Court found Miss Williams’ naked body lying on a bloodstained bedspread with her handbag between her legs.
A search of the rubbish bins found some of the defendant’s discarded clothes.
In his police interview, Okwuegbunam admitted punching Claudette after a row.
Okwuegbunam had told his wife to bathe because her body odour was very strong:
‘I said: If you don’t want to wash in hot water then you are going to take a bath and have it in cold water.
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He said running her a cold-water bath ‘could be construed as some form of punishment.
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Claudette was reluctant so he ‘pushed her down in the water.
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He claimed as she got up ‘she slipped and struck the back of her head on the side of the bath.
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Trying to stand she slipped a further two or three times, the accused told police.
Claudette’s lifeless body would not stand up and he noticed that ‘her eyes had rolled back’ into her head.
He said asked his son to call an ambulance, but then told him to come back.
Okwuegbunam himself went to a call box but instead of phoning emergency services he called a friend instead.
He told police he ‘did feel responsible for her death’ and said he had no intention of harming her or killing her.
Chris Sallon, QC, defending, said Okweugbunam has found it very difficult to come to terms with what he did.
The QC said Miss Williams was prone to bouts of depression throughout her life and she ‘suffered from irregular eating and irregular bathing.
‘The defendant became intolerant and angry with her.
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Passing sentence Judge Stokes told Okweugbunam: ‘Following the quarrel on January 16, during which you struck her twice causing her a black eye and broken nose and other injuries you forced her into a cold bath because her body odour offended you.
‘A human life has been lost as a result of violent conduct by you against a slightly built woman in her own home, the violence being followed by you forcing her to tak a cold bath whereupon she died.
‘There was a strong element of bullying and humiliation in what you did although of course I accept you did not wish her to die.
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Judge Stokes sentenced Okweugbunam to life imprisonment.
Under the Crime Sentencing Act, 1997, the judge stated that he should serve the equivalent of a six year term before his release.
He will remain on licence for the rest of his life.
ends
mmmm
