A man has been found guilty of murdering his girlfriend and three of her family members in a drug- and alcohol-fuelled knife attack at their home in south London.
Joshua Jacques, 29, stabbed his girlfriend, Samantha Drummonds, 27, her mother, Tanysha Ofori-Akuffo, 45, her grandmother Dolet Hill, 64, and Hill’s husband, Denton Burke, 58, in Bermondsey early on 25 April last year.
Police said they had found a “bloodbath” in the house, with Burke’s body at the foot of the stairs and the three women “heaped together” in the kitchen.
An Old Bailey jury deliberated for two hours to find Jacques, from Minard Road in Lewisham, south-east London, guilty of four counts of murder on Thursday.
Jacques, a convicted drug dealer, had admitted their manslaughter but denied murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Officers discovered Jacques in the house, lying in a praying position and calling out “Allah, take me!”, “Kill me now”, “Get rid of me”, and “God please forgive me”, the court heard.
Later, at Lewisham hospital, Jacques said: “I ain’t even in the wrong, I did them for sacrifice,” and also said: “I will do something stupid again.”
Mr Justice Bryan adjourned sentencing until 9 February and remanded Jacques into custody.
The judge was invited by the prosecution to consider whether the “exceptional nature” of the multiple killings warranted a whole-life sentence. Tom Little KC, prosecuting, argued Jacques’s ability to form rational judgments and exercise self-control were not substantially impaired by any psychiatric condition, and that his behaviour had been brought about by “self-induced intoxication, taking drugs and drinking alcohol”.
Jurors were told Jacques had 11 previous convictions for 20 offences, including for cannabis, being in possession of a knuckleduster, and robbery. He first had a mental health assessment in April 2016 after seeking hospital treatment for drinking water from a toilet. He was arrested after he threatened to stab and shoot a security officer, and, while in police custody, he threw food around his cell.
He said he took 3g of skunk cannabis a day and refused to consider cutting down, saying he would carry on smoking marijuana “even if it killed” him.
In 2018, he was detained under the Mental Health Act after he was seen praying in the middle of a busy road in Brixton, south London. Initially, on admission, the impression was of drug-induced mania with psychotic features, jurors were told.
In February 2020, he was jailed for 51 months for conspiring to deal heroin and crack cocaine, and possessing cannabis. He was released on 11 November 2021.
The day before the murders, Drummonds confided in a friend that she believed Jacques was having an “episode”. Little told jurors no medical calls had been made before the killings, nor had Jacques been taken to hospital.
After Jacques launched his attack, Drummonds called his mother, Norma Derrivere, but, the court was told, all she was able to say was “Norma, he’s sta … sta … ahhh”. There had also been FaceTime calls between Jacques and Derrivere that evening, and during one, after 2am, he said: “I’m ending it, I’m gonna make a sacrifice.”
The defence claimed Jacques had exhibited manic symptoms consistent with bipolar disorder.
