Psychopath jailed after murdering vulnerable woman he met online while her son slept next door
Evil Miles Donnelly battered and strangled Usha Patel when she invited him to her home after meeting through an online dating agency
A JUDGE has warned about the perils of dating websites as she jailed a psychopath for life for murdering a lonely and vulnerable woman while her five-year-old son slept in a bedroom next door.
Evil Miles Donnelly, 35, battered and strangled Usha Patel, 44, when she invited him to her home after they met through the Oasis online dating agency.
When the victim’s father, Gopal Patel, arrived at her flat in Cricklewood, North London, to take her son to school the next morning, the boy said: “Mummy’s not well.”
Judge Rebecca Poulet QC today jailed Donnelly for a minimum term of 23 years after he admitted Usha’s murder and causing actual bodily harm to a female neighbour.
The judge told him : “In my assessment, this case is a stark warning to anyone who plans to meet someone following limited internet contact.
“That meeting must take place in a public place until one person feels that they know something of the other.
“She was clearly anxious to meet a new partner but she paid for this invitation with her life.
“She was in my judgement an extremely vulnerable woman.
“Your brutal attack on this woman must have been both terrifying and agonising for her.”
The court heard how single mum Usha invited “lying and manipulative” career criminal Donnelly to her home on the evening of 7 October last year.
The Old Bailey heard she was “desperate for a new relationship” and Donnelly bombarded her with sexually explicit messages before telling her: “I will treat you like a princess.”
But after they undressed, Donnelly, who has a history of violence when drunk or on drugs, killed her by beating her ferociously about the head and strangling her.
As his victim lay dead or dying, he stabbed her in the stomach with a large bread knife 13 times before escaping, but left behind his underpants, socks and keys, with a picture of his daughter on.
Donnelly hid at the home of one his neighbours, Rosie Ferrigno, in Paddington, West London, but attacked her with a stool and then gave himself up to police.
A psychiatric assessment found him to have a “pyschopathic personality,” said prosecutor Simon Denison QC.
The prosecutor added: “He is a lying and manipulative man who was able to quickly gain Usha Patel’s trust and get her to agree to invite him to her home.
“There is no suggestion that he went to her home for the purpose of having sex with her and then killing her.
“There is nothing to suggest that he gains sexual pleasure from violence.
“But he did know, from his extensive criminal history, that he had a tendency to become violent when drunk and drugged, and he must have known he presented a significant and serious danger to women.”