Steroid abusing thug beat his mum to death

A steroid abusing thug who beat his frail mother to death and left her blood on the walls was jailed for a mininum of nine years and four months.

Darren Constant, 39, launched a horrific attack on mum Judy, 62, at her flat in Malborough Road, Holloway, north London.

He punched her to the head, face, neck, torso, abdomen, causing two black eyes, bleeding to her face and fractured ribs.

There was blood on the walls and floor and pieces of Mrs Constant’s ripped hair in the bath after the attack on 3 July 2018.

Mrs Constant refused to be taken to hospital and was found dead by her ex-husband Jacques Constant the next day.

Constant was ‘very muscular’ due to steroid abuse at the time of the attack and had a history of cautions and convictions for assaults on his partners.

He admitted manslaughter last September.

Sentencing Constant to life imprisonment with a minimum of nine years and four months in jail the Recorder of London, Judge Mark Lucraft, KC, said: ‘The risk of causing death should have been obvious to you. You were aware of your mother’s health and frailty.

‘This offence is aggravated by the history of violence and abuse you displayed to your mother.

‘It is of great significance that you have previous cautions and convictions for offences involving domestic violence.’

Prosecutor Bill Emlyn-Jones, KC, said: ‘The defendant and his mother had a very troubled relationship and there was a history of violence and abuse by the defendant against her.

‘The defendant and his then girlfriend, Ivana Bilicova, had broken up on Friday 29 June 2018.

‘The defendant in response to that breakup spent the weekend desperately trying, but failing, to persuade Ivana to come back to him.

‘In the depths of his despair he took his frustration out on the only person available – his mother, who was in the same address as him throughout that weekend.’

A post-mortem found that Mrs Constant died as a combined result of her alcoholism and the blunt force trauma inflicted by her son.

Mrs Constant had been living with her on and off partner George Blake while her son lived in her flat.

When she split up with Mr Blake she had to move back into the flat, causing arguments with her son. In 2013, she wrote to her son demanding he leave the flat.

She said she has also been injured by his pet dog Sheeba.

During his marriage to a woman named Alessandra Bonardi in 2016, Constant began to abuse steroids, which she said made him ‘edgy and angry’.

The court heard he was violent towards her, on one occasion grabbing her by the hair, forcing her down on the bed and throwing punches at her head before kicking her in the ribs.

To patch things up, he bought her a puppy.

He also bought new girlfriend Ivana Bilicova a puppy after an incident on May 2018 when he gave her a black eye before standing outside his mother’s door with a knife shouting ‘It’s better if you died.’

Ms Bonardi witnessed Constant punch his mother in the head in 2017 while screaming ‘you’re a fucking b—h’ and ‘I hate her, I wish she was dead’.

Mrs Constant moved back into the flat again in May 2018 after the death of her mother who she had been living with.

In the days following, he texted her saying ‘Your dead to me never speak to me again’, ‘I hope do die and go to hell’ and ‘please just die and let everyone be happy.’

In June, he sent a text reading ‘Even thinking about giving the place up shows you only care about you, you’re selfish, your mother was an amazing women, you are the worse mother and you will burn in hell, keep drinking. In your sheltered home they won’t buy you alcohol.’

Tired of his abuse, Ms Bilicvoa left Constant on 29 June 2018.

Mr Emlyn Jones said: ‘The effect of her departure on the defendant was dramatic.

‘Over the course of that weekend, he bombarded Ivana with telephone calls, texts and video messages of himself, crying, apologising, and railing against the injustice of it all.

‘Ivana answered some calls, and responded to some messages, but mostly she ignored him, and, to stop the barrage of contact, she blocked his phone number.

‘The defendant started to use a new number. Ivana blocked it. He used another. She blocked it.

‘In all, between 30th June and 3rd July, the defendant used 40 different telephone numbers to contact her, meaning that he had got hold of at least 39 additional SIM cards, swapping them in and out of his phone so that he could keep trying to contact her again and again and again.’

On 2 July Mrs Constant’s ex-partner Mr Blake came to visit.

She told him her son had been smashing the place up all day, and he saw 12 empty wine bottles, which he said must have been drunk by Constant as his mother did not drink wine.

There was also a hole in the wall he had punched through and he had broken her TV.

At 9pm on 3 July, Ms Bilicova received a call from Mrs Constant. She could hear her screaming and saying ‘Darren, don’t do that, don’t do this to me’.

Police attended at 10.51pm and found Mrs Constant in her bedroom with two black eyes and bleeding to her face.

Mrs Constant told police she fell down the stairs chasing the puppy and her son had done nothing, but he was nevertheless arrested while screaming ‘tell them I didn’t do anything’.

She refused to be taken to hospital and paramedics decided they had no right to compel her to do so. Her ex-husband found her dead in her bed at 4.30pm the next day.

Constant told police his mother had self-harmed and would throw herself down the stairs when drunk.

He had three previous cautions for assault on ex-partners and one conviction for battery.

Impact statements from Mrs Constant’s three older sisters Jane Duarte, Doleen Levier and Janick Bhavon Vatikiotis, who attended the sentencing, were read to the court.

Ms Duarte said she had had to give up her job as a banker due to the effect of her sister’s death.

She said: ‘Judy was my only close family here in the UK to whom I confided in. I really miss her presence and phone calls.

‘Judy was an easy going person who would tackle anything. She was very funny and always smiling.

‘She also had her problems and she was very fearful of Darren and had no privileges or choices in her life.

‘Darren made her a prisoner, her life was a misery and that breaks my heart.

‘The fear of knowing how my sister died will never leave me. I will never forget seeing her blood on walls, furniture and most of all her ripped hair in the bath.

Ms Levier said: ‘Sadly I think I always knew her son would be the finish of Judy.

‘I was with her only a few days before death and she was very worried, she asked me to check on her frequently and to check if she was still alive.

‘I think she herself knew she would one day die at the hands of her violent son.

‘Living back with her son was like living in prison. She could not talk on her mobile due to the presence of her son and risk he would hear her.

‘She was too frightened so when she could have reported him she didn’t.

‘I cannot remove the image from my mind of Judy lying in the mortuary beaten with blood on her eyes, nose and mouth.

‘I still can’t understand how a son could do this to his own mother.’

Ms Bhavon Vatikiotis said: ‘In her early days Judy was the most vivacious of us.

‘I saw how she single-handedly raised Darren and catered to his every wish, and continued to do so despite the suffering she experienced at his hand.’

Constant, of Carterhatch Lane, Enfield, admitted manslaughter. He was given a life sentence with a minimum of nine years and four months in prison.

He was also given restraining orders preventing contact with his three aunties and his two ex-partners Ms Bilicova and Ms Bonardi after a history of violence, harassment and intimidation.
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