Theodore Johnson: Triple killer pleads guilty to murder after beating former partner with claw hammer and throttling with dressing gown cord

Garage worker admits killing mother-of-four and grandmother Angela Best at her north London home

Theodore Johnson pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to the murder of his former partner (Metropolitan Police)

A triple killer has pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to the murder of his former partner by beating her with a claw hammer and throttling her with a dressing gown cord.

Theodore Johnson, 64, admitted killing mother-of-four and grandmother Angela Best, 51, at her north London home.

The garage worker was previously convicted of killing his wife by throwing her off a balcony in 1981, and strangling another former partner in 1993.

After the attack Johnson threw himself in front of an express train, but survived.

The defendant, who is now in a wheelchair, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Best and admitted her murder on the first day of his trial.

Best met Johnson around 1995 after the victim moved to London from Manchester with her children.

It can now be reported that the defendant had a history of violence towards women, having been twice convicted of manslaughter before.

In November 1981, he was convicted by a jury at Sheffield Crown Court of the manslaughter of his wife Yvonne Johnson. Following an argument, he hit the mother-of-two with a vase before pushing her over the balcony of their ninth floor flat in Wolverhampton.

Then in March 1993, he was convicted at the Old Bailey of killing his partner Yvonne Bennett, by diminished responsibility. The couple, who had a daughter together, had moved from Wolverhampton to Finsbury Park in north London where Johnson strangled Ms Bennett with a belt after she had an affair with another man.

Best’s two sisters sat in court as Johnson entered his guilty plea as his murder trial was about to be opened to a jury by prosecutor Mark Heywood QC.

Judge Richard Marks QC remanded him into custody to be sentenced on Friday.

Additional reporting by PA