This is the second of two posts examining the eighteen murders that have been committed in Forest Gate since 2003. For details of the source of the information, see the footnote to this post. For some of the conclusions that can be drawn from the murders - see the earlier post, here.
10. Igor Vinogradov: Date of murder: 20 Jan 2011, solved (argument between associates)
A Lithuanian squatter who kicked and stamped his housemate to death was jailed for at least 17 years for the murder. Paulius Korsakas, 27, killed 37-year-old Russian Igor Vinogradov, as the victim slept on the floor of a house 112 Capel Road, on 20 January 2011.
Korsakas then attempted to burn his victim's body to destroy the evidence, before texting his girlfriend to admit: 'I broke one guy really badly'. Mr Vinogradov's body was not discovered until 11 days after the killing.
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| Convicted: Paulius Korsakas - minimum of 17 years |
Witnesses told how Paulius Korsakas, a 27 year-old Lithuanian, attacked Mr Vinogradov in a drunken fury, believing he had been humiliated or slighted during a row.
Detective Sergeant Lesley O'Connell, said: "This was an extremely violent unprovoked attack on a defenceless man who was asleep at the time.
Korsakas was put out by the earlier argument and, fuelled by alcohol and his temper, took his revenge. I am pleased Igor's family have received justice."
11. Champion Ganda: Date of killing:9 May 2013, solved (street fight)
Champion Ganda, 17, was stabbed to death in Forest Gate on the afternoon of 9 May 2013. The teenager and a 16 year-old friend were found injured in Sandringham Road following a fight at around 2pm. Ganda died after being stabbed 11 times in the head, chest, arms and legs.
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| Victim: Champion Ganda |
The second victim, Shaquille Davis, was taken to hospital for treatment and was discharged two days later.
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| Guilty of manslaughter: Amani Lynch |
12. Sabeen Thandi: Date of murder: 7 July 2013 , solved (domestic)
Mother-of-three Sabeen Thandi, 37, was found unconscious at her home in Disraeli Road, on 7 July 2013. She was discovered under the duvet in the bedroom. Attempts were made to resuscitate her but she was confirmed dead on arrival at hospital. A postmortem gave the cause of death as strangulation.
On 8 July police charged Ms Thandi's husband Mohammed Badiuzzaman, 34, a security guard with murder. He pleaded guilty to murder at the Old Bailey on 6 May 2014. He was jailed for life with a minimum of 17 years before parole.
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| Victim: Sabeen Thandi |
On 14 June 2013 she went to a solicitors' firm in Watford and applied for a non-molestation order against her husband. It was granted three days later at Watford County Court, after she said she feared for the safety of her and her three children.
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| Convicted: Mohammed Badiuzzaman, minimum of 17 years |
13. Anu Kapoor: Date of murder:4 Aug 2013, solved (domestic)
Mother-of-two Anu Kapoor, 27, was stabbed to death at her home in Shrewsbury Road on 4 August 2013. Police were called to the address by her husband Rojel Haque at around 4.50pm.
Anu, a receptionist for a firm of solicitors, was pronounced dead at the scene.
A postmortem gave the cause of death as a stab wound to the chest. The couple had two young children, a boy aged eight and a girl aged two.
On 7 August detectives charged Rojel Haque, 40, with murder.
Haque told police he returned home to find his wife had been attacked but prosecutors claimed he killed his wife because he believed his wife was having an affair.
He pleaded guilty to murder on the first day of his trial at Blackfriars Crown Court on 27 January 2014. The following day he was jailed for life with a minimum of 16 years before parole.
14. Amina Bibi: Date of murder:13 Sept 2013 , solved (domestic)
Amina Bibi, 43, was found stabbed to death at her flat in George Carver House in Station Road on 13 September 2013. Police and paramedics were called to the at around 8.50am. Amina, who was married with two children, had suffered around 70 knife wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.
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| Victim: Amina Bibi |
The pair went on trial at Woolwich Crown Court on 22 July 2014. The prosecution claimed that Ali paid Best £1,000 to stab his wife to death after her sons had left for school. The court heard Ali was heavily in debt and was having an affair with his sister-in-law in Pakistan.
He had first met Best while running a shop in Woodgrange Road in Forest Gate in the early 1990s and was aware Best had a drugs habit.
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| Convicted: husband Mohammed Ali (aka Mahendra Patel) - minimum of 24 years |
The crack cocaine addict fled the flat when the eldest son returned minutes later, to pick up school work he had left behind.
Best later told police that he was paid £1,000 to burgle the flat and entered to find Amina Bibi had already been stabbed and was lying on the floor covered in blood. During the trial Ali denied he was having an affair or had paid for his wife to be killed.
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| Convicted: Frederick Best - minimum of 30 years |
15. Milena Yulianova: Date of murder:28 Jan 2014, solved (domestic)
Milena Yulianova, 27, was stabbed to death by her husband at their Nigel Road home, on 28 January 2014. Milena, a Bulgarian national, was taken to hospital but died at 8.22 pm. She had been stabbed 13 times including a fatal injury to heart.
The next day her husband Jamshaid Khan, 28, was charged with murder. Khan went on trial at the Old Bailey on 23 June 2015. The prosecution claimed that he murdered his wife during a row after she refused to help him stay in the country.
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| Victim: Milena Yulianova |
"He needed her help, he needed her co-operation and when ultimately she did not give it she had to pay the price with her life," said prosecutor Lisa Wilding QC.
He denied murder on the grounds of self-defence, telling the court his wife must have been injured during the struggle for the knife.
On 13 July 2015 the jury convicted Khan of murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 20 years before parole, on 17 July 2015.
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| Convicted: Jamshaid Khan - minimum of 20 years |
Investigating officer Detective Inspector Andrew Kelly, of the Homicide and Major Crime Command, said: "The jury were satisfied Khan deliberately stabbed Milena in the midst of their altercation and I am pleased with today's verdict."
16. Edgaras Kondrotas: Date of murder: 12 Jan 2015, solved (drunken rage)
This murder is very similar, in a number of ways, to that of Igor Vinogradov, see case 10, above. Edgaras Kondrotas, 28, was found dead at a house in Sebert Road on 12 January 2015.
Mr Kondrotas, a Lithuanian national from Goodmayes, was pronounced dead at the scene at 3.38 pm. A postmortem gave the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the abdomen.
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| Victim: Edgaras Kondrotas |
On 21 January Irvingas Makasejevas, 39, of Sebert Road was charged with his murder.
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| Convicted: Irvingas Makasejavas life sentence - 26 years minimum |
17. Phyllis Hayes: Date of murder:11 Jun 2015, solved (domestic)
Phyllis Hayes, 65, was found stabbed to death at her home in Idmiston Road on 11 June 2015.
Police were alerted at around midday after a gas engineer gained access to the property to investigate the source of a suspected gas leak. The engineer noticed all four gas knobs on the kitchen cooker had been turned on and discovered Mrs Hayes lying dead in her bedroom.
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| Victim: Phyllis Hayes |
Hayes was arrested at 5.20am on 12 May 2015, after two officers from the Port of Tilbury Police found him hiding in a toilet block. He was charged with murder on 14 May and went on trial at Chelmsford Crown Court on 8 December 2015.
On 21 December he was convicted of murder and the following day was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 21 years, before parole.
It is believed that after murdering his mother, Mark Hayes tried to cause an explosion in the flat by turning on the gas and putting a cigarette lighter in the microwave.
That afternoon detectives received information that Hayes had boarded a train to London at 14.06, only to get off at Wickford Station.
In the early hours of 12 June he entered a cabin in the grounds of a pub in Tilbury and attacked a man sleeping inside. Hayes battered the victim, Alan Pryer, with a trophy and stabbed him in the torso and leg but Mr Pryer managed to escape.
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| Convicted: Mark Hayes - 21 years for murder of his mother, eight and a half years for attempted murder of Alan Pryer and five and a half years for arson |
18. Harbhajan Singh Rooprai: Date of murder: 25 Dec 2015 , solved (bungled dispute attack, where the murdered man was an "innocent victim")
Harbhajan Singh Rooprai, 60, was found dead after a house fire in Field Road, on Christmas Day 2015. The body of Mr Rooprai was found inside the house. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
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| Victim: Harbhajan Singh Rooprai |
On 30 December Tyrone Jacobs, 27 of Ramsay Road, Forest Gate, was charged with murder. The Old Bailey jury heard that Jacobs had fallen out with one of the other tenants of Rooprai's multi-occupancy house and set fire to the property on 25 December.
The would-be victim escaped, but Rooprai was unable to escape the house once the fire took hold.
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| The Field Road blaze, and scene of Harhajan Rooprai's murder |
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| Convicted: Tyrone Jacobs - minimum of 30 years |
The posts record the killings on 18 people for overwhelmingly trivial matters, with major incarceration consequences for the perpetrators.
It is not the role of this blog to veer into matters of criminal justice policy, but the stories portrayed over these posts throw up fundamental concerns over the inadequacies of Britain's criminal justice system.
The threat of lengthy prison sentences clearly provided no deterrent for the murderers convicted of the crimes, induced by by relatively minor causes.
Other than social retribution by incarceration - at considerable public cost - it is difficult to see what benefits lengthy prison sentences will serve. It is equally unclear how those convicted will have their future re-introduction to society and rehabilitation aided by being banged up for long periods with others, from whom they will presumably learn other "tricks of the trade".
Footnote:
The Murder map website (here) is run by volunteers and receives no official funding. They would be grateful for any donations, to keep their project active. Details can be found on the site. We express our thanks to them for their meticulous work, which has enabled this post to be written.
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