13/03/2008

Man Guilty Of Pregnant Woman Murder

A man has been found guilty of the murder of a pregnant woman in south London.

Thomas Hughes, 41, of Stonells Road in Clapham, southwest London, had denied murdering Krystal Hart outside her home on Good Friday last April.

However, he was found guilty at the Old Bailey on Thursday. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to serve a minimum of 30 years.

Miss Hart, 22, was shot twice in the head in an execution-style attack at her home in Belleville Road in Battersea, south London. She was two months pregnant.

During the trial, the court heard that the the shooting was the culmination of a row between neighbours.

Miss Hart had been involved in a dispute with Angie Brewer, the woman who lived in the flat below her and who was described in court as a "neighbour from hell". The court heard that the women had an ongoing county court action and CCTV had been installed to gather evidence.

Hughes, who lived nearby with his elderly wheelchair-bound mother, was said to be besotted with Miss Brewer.

On the day of the shooting, the court heard that Hughes went to Miss Hart's flat, looking for her boyfriend David Siveter, who had written Hughes' car registration number down earlier in the day.

Aftab Jafferjee, prosecuting, said: "The killing took place against a background of a long-running and ugly neighbour dispute that had been festering for some months."

(KMcA)


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