The alleged killer of four members of the same family who died at their home in southeast London has been sent to the Old Bailey to stand trial.
Joshua Jacques, 28, is accused of killing Dolet Hill, Denton Burke, Tanysha Drummonds and Samantha Drummonds at the three-bedroom terraced house in Delaford Road, Bermondsey.
Police were scrambled to the scene following calls from neighbours at 01.40am on Monday, with armed officers breaking into the property after the alarm was raised. They found four people with suspected stab wounds.
Jacques, from Catford, was charged with four counts of murder following an investigation by homicide detectives from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, and appeared briefly at Westminster magistrates court in custody on Thursday.
The defendant, wearing a prison-issue grey tracksuit, was accompanied by two guards during the four-minute hearing, as District Judge Daniel Greenberg sent the case to the Old Bailey.
No details of the allegations were aired in court and Jacques was remanded in custody until the next court appearance.
He was seen surveying the courtroom from the dock and rubbing his thighs during the hearing, which was attended by members of the victims’ family. One grieving relative broke down in tears as Jacques entered the dock.
When asked to confirm his address in Catford, he said: “Yeah, it was.” Jacques gave a salute to a woman in the public gallery as he left the dock after the hearing, before banging his chest twice.
The victims were three generations of the same family. Dolet Hill, 64, had worked as a housekeeper at Guy’s Hospital and had just had surgery for cancer. Her husband Denton Burke, 58, had been a council worker.
The others who died were her daughter Tanysha Drummonds and grand-daughter Samantha Drummonds, 27. She had only moved back to the family home recently while her flat was refurbished.
Tributes were paid to well liked family who had lived in the area for more than a decade. A friend and neighbour of Samantha Drummonds described her as "the loveliest girl you could ever meet."
She added: "Myself and my family are heartbroken. She was beautiful in every way."
Mrs Hill’s niece Venecia Reid said of her aunt, who was originally from Jamaica: "She was a good, churchgoing person. She had worked for a hospital and had just had a cancer operation. She was a wonderful person, I can’t believe she has gone. She worked so hard for her family. She didn’t deserve this."
Meanwhile Tanysha’s partner Danny Ofori-Akuffo described the 45-year-old as "a lovely lady" and said her death had left a "hole in my heart."
Jacques is due to appear next at the Old Bailey on May 3.
