Taye Francis

Taye Francis, a 40-year-old man with a long history of violence against women, was found guilty of murdering his 23-year-old girlfriend, Khloemae Loy, at the Holiday Inn Express in Greenwich, south-east London. The incident occurred on 5 July 2020, when Francis stabbed Ms Loy in the neck with a kitchen knife during an altercation in their hotel room. Following the attack, Francis called emergency services, admitting to the operator, 'Quick, my girlfriend's dying - I've stabbed her in the neck.' While still on the line with the ambulance operator, he sent a photograph of Ms Loy's body to solicitors with the message, 'I've killed my girlfriend.'

Prosecutor Kate Lumsdon QC told the Old Bailey jury that Francis killed Ms Loy in anger, describing the act as murder. The court heard extensive evidence of Francis's abusive past, branding him a 'pathological liar and serial abuser of women' who had spent 20 years controlling vulnerable partners. In 2001, under his original name Ashley Wyatt, he was convicted of kidnapping an ex-girlfriend during her lunch break, raping her on a train and again at a house, and possessing a bladed article. For these offences, he received a six-year custodial sentence and was placed on the sex offenders register for life. Subsequent convictions included assaulting another woman in 2013, during which he sent a threatening message stating, 'I'm gonna kill you, gonna stab you in the neck and get your family,' and another assault on an ex-partner in 2016 during a domestic dispute.

Francis met Ms Loy in 2017 at a pub near Croydon College, where she was studying. The couple checked into the Greenwich hotel on 4 July 2020. Emma Currie from the Crown Prosecution Service described Ms Loy as an innocent victim 'caught in a spiral of abuse,' noting Francis's controlling, violent, and paranoid behaviour, including his habit of wearing a stab vest due to fears related to his status as a registered sex offender. Francis denied murder, claiming his responsibility was diminished by a medical condition, but the jury rejected his defence. The Metropolitan Police investigated the case, highlighting Francis's history of drug-taking and self-obsessed violence. Judge Mark Lucraft QC was scheduled to sentence Francis on 6 December 2021 at the Old Bailey.