A serial abuser has been jailed for 23 years for stabbing his girlfriend to death at a Holiday Inn.
Taye Francis, 40, already had convictions for rape and violence when he killed Khloemae Loy, 23, in a London hotel room last July.
The “self-obsessed” man sent a photo of Khloemae as she lay dead on a bed to his lawyer saying “I’ve killed my girlfriend” as he called 999, jurors at the Old Bailey heard.
She was pronounced dead at the scene at a Holiday Inn in Greenwich, south east London.
Prosecutor Kate Lumsdon QC had told jurors it was not an issue if Francis killed her, but they must consider whether he was suffering from any mental condition at the time.
She said: “Mr Francis was a violent, self-obsessed man who took steroids.
“Apart from building muscle mass, steroids have various side effects. These include aggression and paranoia. Our case is that he killed her in anger. It was murder.”
Francis, of no fixed address, had admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility and was convicted of murder by a jury.
Francis, formerly known as Ashley Wyatt, had a string of convictions for violence against women going back to 2002, the court heard.
In 2002, he was jailed for six years and placed on the sex offenders’ register for two rapes, kidnap and having a blade. In 2013, he was handed a non-molestation order and jailed for assaulting another woman who he threatened to kill and stab in the neck.
In 2015, he was convicted of criminal damage during a domestic incident. In 2016, he was given a conditional discharge for attacking an ex-girlfriend.
Khloemae met Francis while working at a pub near Croydon College, where she was a student.
She told her parents, Maxine and Dany Loy, that he was 26 and that he was a fellow student – neither of which was true.
In 2017, the defendant assaulted Khloemae and threw her in a wheelie bin, jurors were told.
At that time, he was convicted and given a 20-week sentence with a restraining order.
Ms Lumsdon told jurors: “Her parents encouraged Khloemae to leave Mr Francis. Khloemae said she could not leave him or he would attack Mr and Mrs Loy.
“The records paint a picture, you may think, of an aggressive, controlling man and a troubled, frightened woman who is struggling with her mental health.”
The day before Khloemae was murdered she cancelled a shopping trip with her mother, saying she was going to the coast to meet her Francis’ parents.
The next day, Khloemae was found lying on a bed at a hotel in Greenwich with a deep cut to her neck.
Francis was hanging from a ledge outside, having thrown a small rucksack and a suitcase out of the window.
The defendant, who had cuts to his body and had recently taken steroids, was eventually dealt with by the emergency services, put into an induced coma and taken to hospital.
A set of knives were found in the hotel room; a receipt showed these had been bought just a week prior to the attack from a supermarket in Sutton, police said.
Francis and Khloemae had been in an on and off relationship since around 2015, the court heard.
Jurors were told he had grown suspicious that people were out to cause him harm, and that is his paranoia is believed to have been fuelled by his abuse of steroids which were found at the scene.