Man ‘stabbed girlfriend and her family members to death in drug-fuelled attack’ | UK News
A knifeman stabbed his girlfriend and her family to death in a ‘violent and brutal’ drug and alcohol-fuelled attack, a court has heard.
Joshua Jacques, 29, is accused of fatally stabbing girlfriend Samantha Drummonds, 27, her mother Tanysha Ofori-Akuffo, 45, her grandmother Dolet Hill, 64, and Ms Hill’s partner, Denton Burke, 58, in April 2022.
Police were called to Ms Hill’s terraced home in Bermondsey, south London, where they discovered Mr Burke’s body at the foot of the stairs and the three women in the kitchen.
Prosecutors say Jacques left ‘a bloodbath in his wake’ after inflicting numerous stab wounds with multiple knives.
All victims were pronounced dead at the scene, killing ‘three generations in one family’.
Prosecutor Tom Little KC told jurors at the Old Bailey: ‘This case involves not one death, not two deaths, and not even three deaths but four violent and brutal deaths at the hands of this defendant.
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‘There is no dispute or issue other than that it was the defendant that killed all four of the victims and that he did so by attacking them. He did so by stabbing them, cutting them and slashing them.’
The prosecution is arguing that Jacques killed the family with ‘murderous intent’ while under ‘self-induced intoxication’.
KC Little continued: ‘This, we say, led to a transient psychotic disorder not meeting the requirements for the defendant to make out a partial defence of diminished responsibility.’
In the days before the attack, Ms Drummonds told her best friend Ayo Omosuyi she believed Jacques was having an ‘episode’ and had been ‘chatting all night and was fixated on topics’.
In a voice message sent to Ms Omosuyi on April 24, 2022, she said: ‘Literally like this weekend has just been a myth, like basically in a nutshell Josh is basically getting to the point where he could basically have an episode, like I don’t know what’s triggered him.
‘It’s just a myth innit obviously tomorrow is Monday and obviously doctors are gonna get. He just needs to get his medication innit.’
Jacques, of Lewisham, south-east London, has pleaded guilty to the manslaughters but denies murder – the trial continues.
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