Man sentenced over death of girlfriend in Hackney

A man has been sentenced for the manslaughter of his partner after she was found in a car in Haggerston last year.

Gogoa Tape, 29, (11.9.96) of Marsworth House, Haggeston, appeared at Inner London Crown Court on Monday, 1 September, where he was given a hospital order under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act with an additional restriction order under Section 41. This means he could potentially be detained indefinitely.

He was sentenced in relation to the death of Kennedi Westcarr-Sabaroche.

Kennedi was found inside her car in Talavera Place, near Whiston Road, on the morning of Saturday, 6 April 2024. She was 25-years-old.

Officers forced entry to the vehicle and attempted to resuscitate Kennedi before paramedics arrived, but she was sadly pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 07:15hrs.

Detective Inspector Aytac Necati from the Specialist Crime North team, who has led this investigation, said:

"This is a tragic incident and our thoughts remain with Kennedi’s family and friends as they continue to process what happened.

“This young woman’s life was cruelly cut short.”

A combination of CCTV, Automatic Number Plate Recognition and car tracker evidence indicated the defendant travelled on public transport to meet the victim in the Bruce Grove area on the evening of Friday, 5 April.

Kennedi drove the defendant around the local area before ending back in the Whiston Estate.

The investigation team gathered from long distance CCTV that Kennedi’s vehicle was parked stationary in an off-road, called Talavera Place.

The defendant was seen getting out the car and walking away before returning. Officers saw him, on CCTV, standing next to the car, and then bending forward and lunging into the car for around eight minutes.

It was during this time, at around 11:25hrs, that detectives deemed Kennedi was killed.

The court heard, despite having access to Kennedi’s and his own phone, Tape did not call for help.

In a key witness account, officers learnt Tape confessed to his brother that he had killed Kennedi.

It was Tape’s brother who then checked the car and reported the incident to police at 6:42hrs on Saturday, 6 April.

Tape was arrested at the scene and made significant unprompted comments to officers. A kitchen knife was also found inside the car.

Tape was charged with Kennedi’s murder the following day on Sunday, 7 April.

As part of the investigation, detectives carried out extensive CCTV enquiries. The footage showed he was the last person to be with Kennedi inside the car.

Though the post-mortem concluded the cause of death as compression of the neck, Kennedi had also suffered blunt force injuries to the face.

Tape entered a plea of guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility on Tuesday, 17 December at Inner London Crown Court. He also pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed article.

The court heard that following psychiatric assessments, the defendant was suffering from schizophrenia, and the partial defence of diminished responsibility was available to him.

Psychiatrists concluded he was suffering from paranoid and persecutory delusions arising from schizophrenia at the time of the killing.

The Met is committed to radically improving how it protects the public from harm, especially the violence women and girls suffer, as part of its New Met for London strategy.  

Police are aiming to do much more to identify and tackle the most dangerous and prolific perpetrators of Violence Against Women and Girls, identifying high risk and high harm locations, and making better use of police powers to protect women and girls from perpetrators.