Mum thought daughter was giving birth before realising she’d been stabbed to death
A distraught mum believed her heavily pregnant daughter was giving birth, before she realised she had been stabbed to death, a jury heard on Wednesday.
Aaron McKenzie, 26, allegedly broke into ex-girlfriend Kelly Fauvrelle’s bedroom as she slept and stabbed her 21 times, after she told him she was ‘moving on’ with her life and seeing someone new.
Their son Riley was delivered by an emergency Caesarean – seven weeks before his due date – but died on a ventilator in hospital four days later.
McKenzie, from Peckham, south London, denies the murder of Royal Mail worker Ms Fauvrelle, 26, the manslaughter of baby Riley and possessing a knife.
Ms Fauvrelle’s mother, Mary Patton, said she initially believed her daughter was in labour when she heard screams on June 29 last year.
In a police statement read to jurors at the Old Bailey today, she said: ‘I heard Melissa screaming: “call the police”. I don’t know what time it was.
‘As I opened my bedroom door Stephan was opening his and he ran down stairs and I ran after him. I thought Kelly was having a baby.
‘Half way down the stairs Melissa said : “Don’t let mum down the stairs”.’
Ms Patton recalled entering the bedroom, saying: ‘The blood was coming out of her mouth. I thought she had bitten her tongue.
‘Kelly was a cheeky girl who like teasing us. Everything to her was a joke. She never took things too seriously. Kelly was always in her room, she loved her room.’
McKenzie took a driving lesson hours after he attacked his former partner, the Old Bailey heard today.
Emergency services were called to her home shortly after 3.15am, while McKenzie was picked up by his driving instructor at 8.30am, Prosecutor Duncan Penny QC said.
The instructor later told police McKenzie seemed ‘completely normal’ and he ‘seemed really happy’.
In the wake of the attack, McKenzie pretended to have nothing to do with it and ‘posed as a victim’ at the hospital where medical staff were trying to save the life of his child, Mr Penny said.
The defendant allegedly lied to police and did not tell them that he had spent over an hour before the killing accessing and reading his ex-partner’s emails.
He is accused of continuing to deceive police, hospital staff and Ms Fauvrelle’s family until he was arrested.
The trial continues.
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