Murdered pregnant mum was stabbed 21 times, court hears

A jealous man killed his heavily pregnant ex-girlfriend and their unborn baby in a ‘vicious and cowardly’ knife attack – stabbing her 21 times, a court heard.

Aaron McKenzie, 26, allegedly broke into Kelly Fauvrelle’s ground floor bedroom at her Raymead Avenue home in Thornton Heath last June as she slept and stabbed her causing catastrophic injuries.

Their son Riley was delivered by Caesarean section and was put on a ventilator but suffered brain damage from lack of oxygen during the traumatic birth and died four days later in hospital.

McKenzie was caught on CCTV running from the scene in Raymead Avenue before appearing on his Yamaha R1 in a nearby street moments later.

At the time of the killings, Royal Mail worker Ms Fauvrelle, 26, had been 33 weeks pregnant and ‘moving on’ with her life having become close to fellow postal worker Rolander Chigwada, the Old Bailey was told.

McKenzie went to the hospital where medical staff were trying to save the life of his child, “posing as a victim”, Prosecutor Duncan Penny QC told jurors.

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 and realising she had moved on when he found an online receipt for men’s clothing she bought for Mr Chigwada.

Penny said McKenzie continued to deceive police, hospital staff and the Fauvrelle family until he was arrested and “confessed”.

McKenzie, from Peckham, south-east London, denies the murder of Kelly, the manslaughter of baby Riley and possessing a knife.

The prosecutor said: ‘The Crown’s case is that this was a vicious and deliberate killing – perhaps in due course you will conclude the cowardly response of a man desperately jealous about the fact that the mother of his child yet to be born had moved on and now wanted very little to do with him.’

Ms Fauvrelle’s relationship with McKenzie ended in early 2019, jurors heard.

In February, McKenzie messaged her to say that he was feeling ‘not needed, not wanted, unimportant and lost’.

Ms Fauvrelle told him he needed professional help, saying: “Until u get the fact I don’t want to be with you anymore…I will no longer speak or see you unless is about the baby” (sic).

Last March, Ms Fauvrelle allegedly told his mother that the relationship was “toxic”, but she would not deny him access to their child.

Messaging between the two of them suggests that she ended the relationship on 10 February 2019.

Mr Penny said: ‘At around this time, and throughout the spring and early summer it would appear that she had begun to spend more time with her male colleague from work called “Ro” whom she had come to call King.

‘Although initially she was secretive about this relationship with Ro, by the summer of 2019 she had begun to be more open on the topic, at least with her sister Melissa.

‘Ro had given her a pair of trainers for her birthday and Melissa noticed that in the week before her death Kelly had begun to wear a bracelet bearing the name “Queen” on her wrist, matching the name King which Kelly tended to use for Ro.’

The happy new couple had arranged for Rolander to meet Ms Fauvrelle’s family the week after the horrific killing took place, jurors heard.

‘Melissa’s recollection was that arrangements had been made for Ro to meet Kelly’s family on Monday 1 July 2019, she also recalls that Kelly was feeling upbeat because there was a possibility of a new job within the union at the Royal Mail.

The Old Bailey heard emergency services were called to Ms Fauvrelle’s family home shortly after 3.15am on June 29 last year when the victim’s sister, Melissa, heard screaming from within the property.

Earlier, Ms Fauvrelle’s mother, Mary Patton, described being awoken by screams on the night of the attack, thinking her daughter was giving birth.

In her witness statement to police, she said: “I heard (daughter) Melissa screaming to call the police.

“I thought Kelly was having her baby.

“I saw Kelly had a pregnancy pillow round her neck. Blood was coming from her mouth. I could see she had been stabbed.”

The court heard Ms Patton ran into the garden and began screaming, where she collapsed.

Describing her daughter, Ms Patton said: “Kelly was a cheeky girl who liked teasing us.

“Everything for her was a joke, she never took things too seriously.”

The court also heard that around five hours after the killing, suspect McKenzie was having a driving lesson.

Prosecutor Duncan Penny QC said the driving instructor sent a text to McKenzie at 7am that morning asking if he was still available for the lesson, to which McKenzie replied: “All good.”

The court heard McKenzie was picked up by his driving instructor at 8.30am, whose behaviour was deemed by her to be “completely normal”.

Mr Penny said the instructor later remarked to police how McKenzie “seemed really happy”.

McKenzie had bonded with Ms Fauvrelle over their shared love of motorcycles and wheeled his bike through her alleyway to gain access to the house through the patio doors on the night of the killing, jurors heard.

The trial continues.