A killer addicted to cannabis strangled his girlfriend in an SUV, then continued to drive around with her lifeless body in the passenger seat for two hours, a court has been informed.
Gogoa Lois Tape attacked Kennedi Westcarr-Sabaroche, 25, for at least eight-minutes in Hackney, East London last April after asking her for lift.
The 28-year-old, who carried a knife, strangled and hit the defenseless mother of their two-year-old daughter while she was in the driver’s seat of the Vauxhall.
Tape, who had a history of psychotic episodes after refusing to stop smoking cannabis, then drove around after propping up her body.
Inner London Crown Court was shown disturbing CCTV footage of the killer popping nto a shop for cigarettes and drinking from a can.
Prosecutor Julia Faure Walker explained during the hearing, “The defendant could have used his own phone or the victim’s to contact emergency services, but he did not.”
“Rather, during the subsequent two hours up until 01:14am, with the deceased in the passenger seat, he drove around the area, purchased cigarettes, and sent a text from her phone,” she added.
Tape admitted to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, leading the Crown Prosecution Service to agree to drop the murder charge, a decision that has deeply upset the victim’s grieving family.
This decision to accept a plea of manslaughter by diminished responsibility and drop the murder charge has left the victim’s family distraught and angered.
Gogoa Lois Tape, pictured for the first time, attacked Kennedi Westcarr-Sabaroche, 25, for at least eight-minutes in Hackney, East London last April
Psychiatrist reports say he was suffering from ‘paranoid and persecutory delusions arising from schizophrenia at the time of the killing’, Ms Faure-Walker said.
The court heard the defendant had smoked cannabis since 2014 and had been ‘warned to abstain, but would smoke cannabis afterwards’ after contact with mental health services in 2023.
Despite this advice, he continued smoking the drug -including while on holiday in Amsterdam – and failed to attend several follow up appointments.
In March 2024, just weeks before he death, Ms Westcarr-Sabaroche was repeatedly accused by the defendant of cheating on him.
Ms Faure Walker added witnesses had noticed Tape was increasingly ‘paranoid’ and even went to another man’s door to find out if she was with him.
Today, Ms Westcarr-Sabaroche’s mother Linda told Inner London Crown Court: ‘It is deeply painful to know that despite the overwhelming truth of what Tape did, the legal system has given room to this version of events, in a system meant to protect the innocent.’
‘That too is a gaping wound,’ she added.
Her tearful sister Danielle Westcarr-Jourdan added that the way the ‘justice system has responded to her death’ has ‘deepened our pain’.
‘I feel I have had to advocate for myself and for my family’s safety throughout this process. Kennedi deserved protection in life and she deserves justice in death,’ she added.
The mental health worker told the court that the narrative focussed on the ‘preparators mental health….that has added to our pain and made the process even harder to endure’.
‘As a woman… I want justice to reflect the crime,’ she said.
Tape had been warned by several professionals against smoking cannabis again as it could trigger further episodes.
Ms Westcarr-Sabaroche worked as a social media assistant at the Marie Curie trust, she had been an apprentice for the Prince’s Trust, and she has met the King on two occasions.
Her mother told the court: ‘She was my best friend, my soulmate, the life of our family, she was selfless, intelligent, strong, and full of life.’
The hearing continues.
