A Jamaican man living in Britain, who was jailed for killing two ex-girlfriends, was freed from a secure unit after just two years only to go on to murder a third partner with a claw hammer when she discovered his violent past.
According to UK media reports, 63-year-old Theodore Johnson, a garage worker, has admitted to strangling and battering his ex-girlfriend Angela Best, 51, to death in December 2016 after she found out about his dark past and ended their relationship.
It was further reported that Johnson was first convicted of manslaughter in 1981 after throwing his then-wife off a ninth floor balcony in Wolverhampton.
Eleven years later, he strangled a second partner with a belt at their home in London and pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility because of depression and a personality disorder.
But he was detained in a psychiatric hospital for just two years and met Best shortly after he was released into the community.
Johnson, who was born in Jamaica and moved to the UK in 1980, started a relationship with Best in 1995 and she only found out about his previous killings when she found letters about them.
On December 14, 2017, she reportedly told her daughter that she was going to see Johnson the next day to accompany him to an appointment at the Jamaican embassy.
She is believed to have arrived at his home shortly after 9:19 am and later that morning her son tried calling her and got no answer, the UK media reported.
UK authorities went to Johnson’s home that evening and found Best lying on her back next to the sofa with a dressing gown belt tied twice around her neck and a bloodstained silver metal hammer was lying on top of a rug.
That same afternoon, it is reported that Johnson tried to commit suicide by diving in front of a train at Cheshunt railway station but survived despite losing his right arm and his left forearm.
He faces a life sentence when he goes before the court on Friday.
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