Man who killed ex-partner with machete and cut baby daughter's throat jailed for 35 years

Roland McKoy had denied murdering Valerie and Jahzara Forde

Roland McKoy who killed ex-partner with machete and cut his baby daughter's throat jailed for 35 years (PA/Metropolitan Police)

A man who beat his former partner with a machete before slitting his baby daughter's throat has been jailed for a minimum of 35 years.

Roland McKoy, 54, also attacked Valerie Forde, 45, with a hammer and screwdriver before killing 22-month-old Jahzara in Hackney, east London.

He then drank bleach and left a note stained with Jahzara's blood on Mrs Forde's face, blaming her for what happened.

Mrs Forde's 28-year-old daughter, Carrise, overheard the savage attack on an open phone line.

McKoy, who denied the murders, was found lying with the bodies.

Jurors at the Old Bailey heard that he had inflicted at least 30 injuries on Mrs Forde as she was getting ready to leave for work on 31 March, which was the deadline she had set for him to move out of their shared home.

The court also heard that Mrs Forde, a community project manager, had told relatives she was worried about her safety.

She texted her sister in January, saying she was “feeling a bit scared of him but I continue to be guided by my angels”.

She also wrote: “Just looking at his face and body language I have to be very, very careful and pray for my safety each day and night.”

Jurors, who were reduced to tears while the messages were read out, took two-and-a-half hours to convict McKoy.

Judge Charles Wide, who sentenced him to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 35 years, said McKoy suffered from "monstrous egotism".

"You did it out of spite and resentment that Valerie at long last had the strength and resolve to say that enough is enough and you had to go," he said.

"You thought she was going to back down but she didn't and that was an affront to your monstrous egotism."

McKoy had argued that he was acting in self-defence, after finding their daughter dead.

But Ed Brown QC, prosecuting, said it was "plain" that McKoy had carried out the "brutal" attacks.

”It is plain that the defendant had attacked Valerie Forde with the hammer, slashed her face and neck with the machete and stabbed her multiple times with the screwdriver,“ he said.

”It is equally clear from the evidence that the defendant used that same machete to cut Jahzara's neck from one side to the other. Each attack was a brutal one.“

The court heard that in 1999, Mrs Forde discovered McKoy was still married to another woman - and had two children.

She had also contacted the police about McKoy, and the case is now being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Mrs Forde's family said her life and that of Jahzara, their friends and the wider community in Hackney had been ”destroyed“.