27/06/2006

Teenager jailed for pensioner's murder

The teenage daughter of a property millionaire has been found guilty of the murder of an elderly neighbour, after writing a 'murder manual' in prison.

Kemi Adeyoola, from Camden, north London, was 17 when she stabbed 84-year-old Anne Mendel 14 times in her home in Golders Green, north-west London, last March.

Her body was discovered by her husband, Leonard, 81, covered in coats in the hallway of their home.

The court was told that Adeyoola had chosen Mrs Mendel as a "soft target" on which to practice her plans before targeting a "rich, elderly, defenceless woman" to murder for her money.

She may have escaped being charged for Mrs Mendel's murder had it not been for a speck of DNA found on the victim's hand.

Adeyoola, now 18, had written an 18-page 'murder manual' while serving a sentence for shop-lifting in Bullwood Hall, Essex. The manual detailed plans to find a wealthy victim, stalk her and finally ambush her, before robbing her and killing her, disposing of her body in binliners.

Adeyoola claimed that the manual was the basis for a crime thriller.

The 18-year-old was found guilty of murder by a jury of seven women and five men.

She and a 16-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were also found guilty of one charge of conspiracy to pervert justice with a false alibi.

Adeyoola's father, Bola Adeyoola, who remarried and started a new family after separating from her mother, said that what she had done was "evil". He said: "She is no longer my daughter. I don't even like her."

A statement issued by Mrs Mendel's family said: "Mrs Mendel was a person whose whole life was taken up with kindness and giving up of herself for others.

"The unjust end she met having so much taken away in such an undeserving manner left us in total shock."

Adeyoola is due to be sentenced on Wednesday.

(KMcA/CD)

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