Serial abuser of women found guilty of fatally stabbing girlfriend in neck

A serial abuser of women has been found guilty of fatally stabbing his girlfriend in the neck.

“Self-obsessed” Taye Francis already had convictions for rape and violence when he killed 23-year-old Khloemae Loy in a hotel room last July.

The steroid addict sent a picture of Ms Loy lying dead on a bed to his lawyer saying “I’ve killed my girlfriend” as he called 999, jurors heard.

Ms Loy was pronounced dead at the scene in Greenwich, south-east London.

Prosecutor Kate Lumsdon QC had told jurors there was no issue that Francis killed her, but they must consider whether he was suffering from any mental condition at the time.

She said: “Mr Francis was a violent, self-obsessed man who took steroids.

“Apart from building muscle mass, steroids have various side effects. These include aggression and paranoia.

“Our case is that he killed her in anger. It was murder.”

Francis, 40, of no fixed address, who had admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility, was found guilty of murder by a majority of 10 to two on Wednesday.

He was remanded in custody to be sentenced on December 6.

The court heard how Francis, formerly known as Ashley Wyatt, had a string of convictions for violence against women.

In 2002 he was jailed for six years and placed on the sex offenders’ register for two rapes, kidnap and having a blade.

In 2013 he was handed a non-molestation order and jailed for assaulting another woman who he threatened to kill and stab in the neck.

Two years later, he was convicted of criminal damage during a domestic incident.

In 2016, he was given a conditional discharge for attacking an ex-girlfriend.

Ms Loy had met the defendant while working at a pub near Croydon College, where she was a student.

She told her parents, Maxine and Dany Loy, that he was 26 when he was in fact much older, and also, wrongly, that he was a fellow student.

In 2017 Francis assaulted Ms Loy and threw her in a wheelie bin, jurors were told.

He was convicted and given a 20-week sentence with a restraining order.

Ms Lumsdon told jurors: “Her parents encouraged Khloemae to leave Mr Francis.

“Khloemae said she could not leave him or he would attack Mr and Mrs Loy.

“The records paint a picture, you may think, of an aggressive, controlling man and a troubled, frightened woman who is struggling with her mental health.”

The day before the murder Ms Loy cancelled a shopping trip with her mother, saying she was going to the coast to meet her boyfriend’s parents.

On July 5 last year Ms Loy was found lying on a bed at a hotel in Greenwich with a deep cut to her neck.

Francis was hanging from a ledge outside, having thrown a small rucksack and a suitcase out of the window.

The defendant, who had cuts to his body and had recently taken steroids, was eventually dealt with by the emergency services, put into an induced coma and taken to hospital.

When uniformed police knocked on the door of the victim’s parents’ door, Mr Loy answered and said: “He’s killed her, hasn’t he?”