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Drug dealer sentenced to life for killing woman with hammer and knife | |
(35 minutes later) | |
A violent drug dealer who evaded deportation for years before he launched a hammer and knife attack on a woman in her home could spend the rest of his life behind bars. | |
Lloyd Byfield, 48, pursued a relationship with 26-year-old Leighann Duffy before he armed himself with a claw hammer and a knife and smashed his way her flat in Walthamstow, east London, on 1 September last year. | Lloyd Byfield, 48, pursued a relationship with 26-year-old Leighann Duffy before he armed himself with a claw hammer and a knife and smashed his way her flat in Walthamstow, east London, on 1 September last year. |
After Byfield pleaded guilty to murder, Judge Nicholas Cooke sentenced him to life with a minimum term of 26.5 years and told him he might never be released. | |
He told Byfield he must have had a “heart of stone” to have killed Duffy despite the presence of a child who was attacked when she tried to intervene. | |
During the Old Bailey hearing, Cooke expressed his unhappiness at the authorities’ failure to deport Byfield, a Jamaican national, after he attacked another woman with a chisel and was jailed for 30 weeks for burglary in 2005. The murder could have been prevented if he had been sent back to Jamaica then, he said. | |
The court heard Byfield, of no fixed abode, burst into the victim’s living room and stabbed her 14 times before she managed to stagger next door clutching a wound to her neck. She died in hospital two days later. | The court heard Byfield, of no fixed abode, burst into the victim’s living room and stabbed her 14 times before she managed to stagger next door clutching a wound to her neck. She died in hospital two days later. |
The six-year-old girl who witnessed the assault at the flat suffered minor injures but did not need hospital treatment. | |
Byfield fled to Hackney but was arrested days later after he stopped a police community support officer in Walthamstow High Street and said he was wanted by the police. | Byfield fled to Hackney but was arrested days later after he stopped a police community support officer in Walthamstow High Street and said he was wanted by the police. |
He told the officer: “I’ve done it, I’m not going to fight it. When you love someone you are not supposed to hurt them, but love can make you do stupid things. I think the devil came into my head.” | He told the officer: “I’ve done it, I’m not going to fight it. When you love someone you are not supposed to hurt them, but love can make you do stupid things. I think the devil came into my head.” |
Cooke told Byfield: “That’s not love. Love is caring and cherishing. This was obsessive, possessive brutality, mirroring a wholly wrong attitude to women. This is the pinnacle of domestic violence, a scourge that affects the life of women and children.” | Cooke told Byfield: “That’s not love. Love is caring and cherishing. This was obsessive, possessive brutality, mirroring a wholly wrong attitude to women. This is the pinnacle of domestic violence, a scourge that affects the life of women and children.” |
The court was told that Byfield had been convicted of cannabis-dealing in Jamaica before he came to Britain some time between 1999 and 2005. He was granted leave to remain in the UK after he married a woman in 2002, despite continuing a relationship with his then girlfriend. | |
He was ordered to be deported in 2007 although that never happened. Cooke told him: “You were to be deported but, for reasons that have never been explained to me, that was never actioned and you remained here able to kill an innocent woman.” | |
In a victim impact statement, Duffy’s mother, Ann Kerr, described her daughter as a “happy, joyous woman”. She said: “The day Lloyd Byfield broke into Leighann’s house and attacked and murdered her completely ripped our family apart and our family will never be the same again.” | |
As an impassive Byfield was sent down, a member of Duffy’s family called out: “Scumbag, I hope you rot in hell.” | As an impassive Byfield was sent down, a member of Duffy’s family called out: “Scumbag, I hope you rot in hell.” |
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