A UK-based Nigerian man, Adedapo Adegbola, has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering a woman he worked with after she ended their brief “controlling relationship.”
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Adedapo Adegbola, 40, fatally stabbed Stephanie Irons, 23, in the neck, at her home in Mapperley, Nottinghamshire, on the evening of 21 October.
Nottingham Crown Court heard Adegbola, a social worker, “had become obsessed” with Irons and planned to kill her.
On Thursday Adegbola was told at the same court he would spend a minimum term of 25 years in prison following his guilty plea last month.
Speaking in court, Irons’s mother said: “I have no words to say how broken I am to have lost her in such a horrific way.”
Adegbola sobbed as the mother described her daughter’s “compassionate and caring” nature.
“She lit up the room and could make even the saddest person smile,” she said.
“That’s because she wanted to make a happy and kinder world.”
Sentencing Adegbola Judge Nirmal Shant KC said: “You had been in a brief relationship with Stephanie Irons after you met as work colleagues.
“Your controlling behavior led her to end the relationship. What is plain is that you were not prepared to accept that.”
The court heard Adegbola had purchased two knives and travelled by taxi to Irons’s home in Westdale Lane West, unknown to her, after they finished work on 21 October.
He arrived about 20 minutes later than her and after she appeared to take her bins out, he entered, leaving an hour and 50 minutes later.
Prosecuting, Peter Joyce KC told the court Adegbola had sent a number of screenshots of sexually explicit messages from Irons’s phone to colleagues “probably after he had killed [her]”.
Concerned for Irons, two colleagues visited her home in Mapperley but when there was no answer, they called the police.
Officers were eventually able to get into the flat through a rear window.
The court heard Irons was found lying on her back on the floor, surrounded by blood.
Joyce said: “It is the prosecution’s case that he has become obsessed with this woman and could or would not accept that the relationship was over.”
Before Adebola murdered Irons, the court heard colleagues had become concerned by his behaviour towards her.
On 15 October, he purchased two knives “in order to kill” Irons.
Days later, he went to her home armed with a knife and inflicted a number of cuts to her as well as the fatal blow to the front of her neck.
The court heard after attacking her, Adegbola sat on the sofa “as she lay dead, or dying”.
He then left taking with him her phone and her keys, locking her inside before fleeing and disposing of his shirt, trousers and the murder weapon on his way.
“What you did on that day was to take the life of a young girl who was compassionate and accomplished and whose only fault was to love you at one time,” the judge said.
Adegbola handed himself into the police on 22 October, after feeling to Hull, and later pleaded guilty to murder in January
Det Insp Stuart Barson, the senior investigating officer in the case, said Irons’s family had shown “incredible strength and bravery” throughout the investigation.
In a statement read out on the family’s behalf he said: “We have lost our beautiful daughter and shining light.
“No-one will ever take away the pain that’s been caused the this senseless act.
“She was the kindest, sweetest person anyone could meet and our lives will never be the same.
“She touched so many lives with her personality and kind soul.
“While justice will be done, time will never heal our loss.”
A number of police officers were in court on Thursday, at the request of Irons’s mother – a former officer – so she could thank them.
Earlier this week Nottinghamshire Police charged a woman with assisting an offender in relation to the case.
Mary Onolunosen, 40, is due to appear at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on 6 March.
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