Charlotte Huggins: Boyfriend stabbed mother-of-one to death because he was jealous of her speaking to other men, court hears

Mother-of-one killed at her aunt's home in early hours of New Year's Day

Charlotte Huggins (Met Police)

A mother-of-one was stabbed to death on New Year's Day by her controlling and jealous boyfriend, a court has heard.

Charlotte Huggins was knifed in the back at her aunt’s flat in Camberwell, south London, by Michael Rolle in the early hours of 1 January, jurors were told.

The 33-year-old is believed to have been the first person killed in the capital in 2019 after being pronounced dead at 4.50am that morning.

Rolle, 34, of the East Dulwich Estate, also south London, denies her murder.

Opening the trial at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, Gareth Patterson, prosecuting, said: "He forced a large kitchen knife into her back, the blade passing through her lung and damaging a major blood vessel carrying blood from her heart."

He added that Rolle – who himself had another partner – was driven by jealousy of the contact Ms Huggins had with other men, specifically her lifelong friend Jason Nelson.

Mr Patterson said that on the evening before she was killed, she had celebrated the new year at a local pub, before returning to her aunt’s flat at about 1.45am with Mr Nelson.

The par drank beer and took cocaine together before Rolle, a father-of-one, arrived at 4.10am, the jury was told.

At that point, Mr Patterson said, "Charlotte Huggins told Jason Nelson to leave and he did".

But when he returned soon after to collect some belongings he had forgotten, he saw Rolle leaving the property with his girlfriend coming out behind him clutching at stab wounds.

"She was holding herself around the middle," he said.

She was pronounced dead soon after, despite the best efforts of emergency workers.

Mr Patterson said Rolle was arrested on 3 January and "made several significant" comments, which included "asserting that the stabbing had been an accident”.

He added that Rolle himself would tell jurors that the killing occurred in a freak incident while his partner was actually holding the kitchen knife.

But Mr Patterson said: "The prosecution say Charlotte Huggins did not stab herself in some terrible kind of freakish accident.

"On the contrary. She was deliberately stabbed by another person.

"When the knife was forced into her back it wasn't in her hand, it was in the hand of the defendant."

The trial continues.