A 46-year-old Nigerian man is sentenced to life in jail in the UK for k!lling his 52-year-old wife.
The suspect, Conrad Irabor Martin Iyayi and his family
The suspect identified as Conrad Irabor Martin Iyayi, was landed a life imprisonment term by a British court for murdering his 52-year-old wife, Kathryn Harris.
On February 6, 2022, the art instructor was stabbed seven times at their Oak Crescent house by the 46-year-old convicted felon. Their 11-year-old kid was believed to have been sleeping upstairs when he allegedly attacked her.
Police discovered Kathryn, a 52-year-old mother of three and former employee of St. Clares School in Mickleover, semi-naked in their home’s kitchen, according to Derbyshire Live.
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The suspect at about 7 AM after committing the grave crime dialled 999 from a nearby phone box and informed the police, “I have k#lled my wife,” which contacted them at the home.
Iyayi subsequently admitted to police that he had consumed narcotics he had bought on the dark web and that is why he could not recall what had transpired.
Iyayi continued to deny that he had killed his wife after being charged with murder on February 8.
However, he acknowledged being guilty just two days into his trial at Derby Crown Court.
He was sentenced to life in prison on Friday, August 18, 2023, and must serve at least 18 years before being considered for parole.
In the words of Detective Inspector Steve Shaw: “Katy Harris was a much-loved mother, daughter, friend and teacher. Her death was a tragic loss of life for her loved ones, as well as the hundreds of students whose lives she had touched through her work as a teacher.
“Our thoughts today are with Katy’s family, in particular her three children who she loved so much. Their dignity and support for this investigation has been exemplary, and I cannot thank them enough for the way they have conducted themselves throughout what has been an incredibly difficult 18 months.
““Conrad Iyayi deprived Katy of what should have been a long and happy life with her family and friends – and has provided no credible explanation as to what happened in that house on the night in question.
“I hope that seeing Iyayi behind bars will give all those affected the space to now start rebuilding their lives and allow them to focus on the memories of Katy – who will live on in the hearts of all she knew.”
The couple’s 11-year-old son was also at home in his bedroom, the court heard, and Ms. Harris, who worked as an art teacher at St. Clare’s School in Mickleover, had likely been sleeping in the spare room of the house owing to her husband’s snoring.
The son defined the event as “entirely normal” when questioned by police, according to prosecutor Gordon Aspden KC.
Iyayi and his kid were watching Match of the Day on February 5 when a neighbor’s CCTV captured him strolling his dog just before 3 AM GMT the following day.
The court heard that bloodstains on the coat he was wearing in the CCTV footage suggested the incident may have occurred earlier since they included his wife’s DNA.
Later that morning, the defendant contacted the police from a nearby payphone and said that he thought he had killed his wife. When the police arrived, they discovered her dead in the kitchen lying in a pool of blood.
After Iyayi was taken into custody and their son was awakened, she was declared dead on the spot.
According to Mr. Aspden, a post-mortem investigation revealed that Ms. Harris died from chest stab wounds, and marks on her hand indicated that she was “literally fighting for her life” for some of the assault.
He [Iyayi] made a lot of uninvited remarks on Katy’s passing, according to Mr. Aspden.
He said it all felt like a dream and the situation, in his words, was ‘crazy.
Considering the terrible circumstances of what had transpired, his demeanour was incredibly composed and controlled.
Iyayi, according to him, claimed to have taken a “mind-altering” hallucinogen and killed his wife in a dream before discovering her body hours later. He said that Iyayi had told police a “demonstrably untrue” story, according to which the methadone he had purchased on the dark web had an unexpected impact.
Later testing, however, revealed that Iyayi had really taken prescription methadone in addition to antidepressants and painkillers, not an unidentified narcotic as he had initially stated.
He said that the defendant had “a significant number of prior convictions for a wide variety of offences.”
The couple’s youngster stated in a victim impact statement that he didn’t want anything to do with his father.
The most significant individual has been removed from me, the statement claimed.
“It’s really upsetting that I won’t get to make any more memories with my mum,”
Ms Harris’ adult daughter Phoebe Harris, who read out a statement on behalf of her and her sister Alexa, said their mother’s murder had left them “devastated and traumatised”, and thanked people for supporting the family.
“We don’t see him as a human being as anyone with any humanity could not take someone else’s life in the way that he did,” she said.
“He is sinister, sadistic, and manipulative. We feel betrayed,”
“We cannot comprehend how one person has affected so many people’s lives,”
“Our mum was the light in the lives of so many people, whereas he encapsulates darkness.”
Amjad Malik KC, Iyayi’s attorney, claimed that the defendant “destroyed a woman that he loved” and who had helped him through drug troubles for “a reason that he cannot explain and a reason that will always haunt him.”
At the time of the attack, Ms. Harris “would have been conscious,” according to Judge Shaun Smith KC, who also noted that Iyayi had written to him taking responsibility and expressing his ignorance of the motive for the murder.
“It was a brutal, frenzied killing, and a needless death,” he further.
“What you did in the early hours of that morning ended the life of a much-loved woman, and emptied the lives of many others.”
