Devil worshipping killer gets 42 years

A devil worshipper who murdered one sex worker, tried to stab another to death and attacked a third in just four hours was jailed for at least 42 years today (fri).

Brian Sengendo, 27, was seen beating Therasia Gordon, 44, through the door of his white van minutes before he stabbed her to death as ‘sacrifice of an innocent.’

After being spotted by a local resident he drove off with Ms Gordon in the van and the doors flapping behind him.

Two days later her body was found in a wooded area in Burntfarm Ride in Enfield, north London.

Hours before the killing on 3 August 2020, Sengendo had filmed himself having sex with a woman and then told her to grab two kitchen knives and join him on a demonic ‘mission’.

Sengendo, of Gilbert Street, Enfield, denied but was convicted of murder, attempted murder, rape, two counts of kidnap, one of threatening another with a weapon and making a threat to kill.

Judge John Hillen had earlier praised the ‘excellent police work’ which brought him to justice and: ‘It may well be that a serial killer has been caught on Day One.’

The judge said it was ‘a ‘Ripper’ type case in which the offender has been caught at the outset.’

Sentencing Sengendo, Judge Hillen said: ‘Some women, not only women of course, but in this case they are women work as sex workers, selling sexual favours for money because it is either a lifestyle choice or because of poverty or, it seems to be the case with these victims, because they are drug addicts and need to find cash to purchase class A drugs.

‘Such women, of course necessarily by the nature of their trade, place themselves in a position of great vulnerability and a substantial risk of violence and harm.’

Judge Hillen said that when sex workers were victims of violence they were reluctant to report it out of fear they would be themselves charged with an offence or simply not believed.

He noted that police figures showed sex workers continued to be murdered at ‘an alarming’ rate, with 152 being murdered between 1990 and 2018.

‘As long as the sex trade, described in literature as the oldest profession and the reasons for its proliferation continue, sex works, women, men and transgender remain and will remain vulnerable.

‘It is that vulnerability of which you took advantage of Brian Sengendo took advantage of when you set out in a determined effort to kidnap, to rape, ultimately to kill a sex worker and then to violate the dead or dying body,’ said Judge Hillen.

‘You have never revealed what it was that led you to target sex workers, to try to find one to kill and to sexually abuse her body, in revenge of having been robbed, clipped, by one or because of sexual inadequacy, we do not know.’

Sengendo’s first victim was a sex worker he picked at a BP Garage in Fore Street, Edmonton and took to his flat in Princes Avenue, Muswell Hill, on 2 August 2020.

She said in a statement: ‘We were lying on the bed and Brian started to say lots of weird things.

‘His demeanour would go from being quite light to suddenly aggressive. He was talking about Devils and Demons and how he worshipped the devil….”

He told her he wanted to kill ‘an innocent’ together with her, ‘in the country.’

Sengendo filmed them having sex together on his phone, which was recovered by the police near to where Ms Gordon’s body was found.

As she performed oral sex on him he told the woman: ‘Repeat after me. I’m the devil’s child.’

He then makes her say: ‘I sold my soul to the devil.’

The following day Sengendo called her repeatedly telling her they had to complete the ‘mission.’

The woman said: ‘He told me to bring two kitchen knives. I told him that I didn’t have any knives and I didn’t want to kill anyone.’

But she agreed to meet him and got into the van near the Fore Street garage.

Sengendo pulled out a knife and told her: ‘I’ve got you now, you’re not going anywhere.’

He added: ‘If you move, I’m gonna f–king kill you!”.

The woman was so terrified she jumped out of the van while it was moving.

The next victim, who also cannot be named, was repeatedly stabbed and raped after she got into the van in near the Fore Street garage just before midnight.

She said in a statement: ‘All of a sudden the male held a knife to the front of my neck and said something like, ‘This is what’s going to happen.

‘I am going to rape you and I am going to enjoy raping you and you will do what I say or I will kill you”.

‘Then the male kept asking me if I wanted to die.

‘I could feel something pressed to the front of my neck.

‘I started performing oral sex on the male whilst he was driving.

‘He moved the knife from the front of my neck to my gut.

‘I could feel the knife pushing against my gut area.

‘The male seemed to enjoy telling me that the knife was there, and he kept asking me if I wanted to die.’

She managed to undo her seatbelt and tried to open the passenger door to jump out.

Prosecutor John Price said: ‘It was then he started stabbing her with his knife. He did so several times.’

The woman suffered seven wounds, two each to her neck, her lower face, her chest and one to her shoulder.

She was later seen staggering into the road by a police officer bleeding heavily from her neck and sobbing: ‘I’ve been stabbed, can someone help me.’

Later that same night local resident Antonis Papasavva called the police after he heard cries of help at the back of his home in New Park Avenue, Palmers Green, an hour later.

Mr Papasavva could see a white van parked in an alley.

‘Standing adjacent to the open front passenger door of the van had been a young black man, who was striking at someone or something inside the van, through the open door,’ Mr Price said.

‘This man had then got back in the driver’s seat after seeing Mr Papasavva at his window and realising he had been seen by him.’

Mr Papasavva called the police but by the time they got to the scene the van had left.

The woman he had seen was Ms Gordon.

Her body was found by a cyclist in Burntfarm Ride, Enfield, three days later on the morning of Thursday, August 6.

The partial plate number that Mr Papasavva provided was cross referenced with camera records in the Enfield area.

‘Police records were discovered of this vehicle being twice recently reported as abandoned in Gilbert Street, Enfield by people who lived there,’ Mr Price said.

On August 4, police recovered Ring.com doorbell CCTV footage from an address in this street, which showed ‘a slim young black male getting into the van and driving it away’.

Mr Price added: ‘As a result of seeing that man driving that van, he became the main suspect in the investigation.

Separately, a police officer known to the first victim was asking questions about the name of the man who had attacked her.

The victim said that his name was ‘Brian’ and had his phone number saved in her mobile.

‘A subscriber enquiry revealed it was an EE contract phone and it had the subscriber’s name, “Mr Ryan Segendo of 63, Gilbert Street, Enfield”,’ Mr Price said.

’63 Gilbert Street…is the home address of this defendant’s family.’

Sengendo repeatedly searched for news of the murder and Googled: ‘How long does DNA last on clothes.’

He was arrested in the early hours of 7 August, after leaving his home and getting into a blue BMW car.

Sengendo, of Gilbert Street, Enfield, denied murder, attempted murder, rape, three counts of kidnap, two of threatening another with a weapon and making a threat to kill.

He claimed he was not the man in the white van.

Jurors were told that less than 30 minutes after the attack on the first victim, Sengendo lured another sex worker into his van.

He refused to give her the money up front and she also jumped out of the van when he pulled out a knife, was claimed.

The jury could not decisions on allegations of kidnap and threatening that woman with a weapon after more than 26 hours of deliberation and were discharged from giving verdicts.

Judge Hillen imposed a life sentence with a minimum term of 42 years for Ms Gordon’s murder, telling Sengendo we would not be elligible for parole until 2062.