#ukcrime

Kemi Adeyoola

On June 28 2006, 18-year-old Kemi Adeyoola, daughter of a multi millionaire, was sentenced to the murder of an elderly woman after an incriminating 'blueprint' was discovered. The blueprint was written during her stint in a young offenders institution. The plan? A truly 'fiendish' crime, brutally stabbing 84 year old Anne Mendel 14 times. She was convicted at the Old Bailey yesterday and sentenced today to a recommended minimum of a least 20 years behind bars.

No one could understand why this twisted teen targeted elderly Anne Mendel, they were neighbours for a short time in North London. On first meeting Anne Mendel the first thing that you'd notice would be her size, at around 7 stone and barely 4 foot 10 she was a small woman who had spent her whole life helping others.

Kemi Adeyoola was her complete opposite. She was working at the time as a £500 a night prostitute and had served time for shoplifting. The 'blueprint for murder' that she was later found to have written while she was in a young offenders' institution was over 18 pages long, and detailed her plan to make £3 million by killing a 'wealthy, quite elderly and defenceless' victim.

The blueprint was actually discovered in her cell while she was still in the institution, but all that was done to protect te outside world was the creation of a council monitoring team to supervise her for three months after her release. But unfortunately psychiatrists decided that Kemi wasn't a risk to the public and tragically less than a month after the supervision ended, Anne Mendel was dead.

81 year old Leonard Mendel, Anne's husband, found Anne Mendel wearing blood soaked pyjamas and pink dressing gown, with a pile of clothes thrown on top of her.

Kemi who is the daughter of a property tycoon worth around £10 million, faces a life sentence. After this verdict those closely following the case stated that they believed that she was 'born to kill' and that she was a 'supremely arrogant phschopath with a total disregard for humanity'.

Kemi has since been disowned by her father Bola Adeyoola, he stated:

'Nobody is born evil but what she did was evil. She is no longer my daughter. I will never see her again, and don't want her anywhere near me. I regret the day I ever met her mother. When I saw Mrs Mendel's picture I started crying. As a Christian, I can't believe anyone would do that.'

Mr Adeyoola, a 49 year old former boxer who lived in a £2 million Berkshire home with his latest wife, had previously given his daughter free accommodation in the home as well as a £140 a week job.

Discussing this he said, 'She was staying with me until a month before the murder, when I found out she had been shoplifting. I do wonder wether this woman would still be alive if I hadn't kicked her out. At first I couldn't accept that somebody with my blood in her veins could do this to anyone - but then I saw the evidence. She should rot in hell.'

His marriage to Kemi's mother Mercuria lasted barely 4 years, and he had very little contact during the upbringing of his three children. Mercuria also has a fourth child from a different relationship.

She and her children moved to a succession of homes in places including Cheltenham and Peterborough, frequently alienating neighbours. While staying in one specific property in Gloucestershire, Kemi reportedly killed the goldfish in a neighbour's pond and blamed it on a cat.

The teenage killer briefly boarded at £23,000-a-year Wycliffe College. The independent school at Stonehouse in the Cotswolds prides itself on its academic and sporting achievements, but Kemi only lasted a few months because of a row over who was paying her fees.

The family then moved to Elmcroft Road in Golders Green for several months, living next to Mr and Mrs Mendel.

The elderly couple had been married for 50 years and lived a quiet, rewarding life. They had two children, and 14 grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Their son Yitzhak appealed for help after his mother's murder said 'My mother spent every day of her week performing good deeds and charity work. She devoted her whole life to visiting the sick, helping friends and neighbours and bringing a smile to everyone she knew - even complete strangers.'

In her youth Anne Mendel had worked as a hospital secretary and joined the Army during the Second World War, helping to track German bombers blitzing the East End of London.

While living beside Anne Mendel, Kemi locked herself out of her home and was quickly allowed into Anne's home. Anne Mendel did this despite the fact that neighbours reported Kemi subjecting residents nearby to a 'reign of terror'. Reportedly abusing young children, harassing neighbours due to their race and even smearing excrement on windows.

A resident who wanted to remain anonymous stated, "She gave a lot of trouble to one particular family. Once she lay in wait for the man, an Asian, behind a bush and punched him in the face, breaking his nose. She called his wife a "Paki lover". He said she tried to poison his dog as well.' Kemi was later arrested for this.

Other neighbours recall Mr Adeyoola sometimes turning up in his Rolls Royce to see his children, but the visits were brief and infrequent.

Kemi pretty much ignored her and by the time that she was 15 she had already fallen into bad habits. She was stealing frequently from high Street stores. She told the jury when in court that it was a skill and explained how she became adept at changing receipts to get refunds for these stolen goods.

However her arrogance outweighed her skill it seems, as after a string of convictions found herself finally facing a custodial sentence.

Her self-obsession continued and she reportedly talked to one of her siblings bragging about her acting talents when she was questioned by a youth worker. She said that she wept, mumbled and arched her back in an attempt to convince her of her 'innocence and vulnerability' to try and get herself a shorter sentence.

'It worked such a treat I could tell she was touched,' she wrote. 'I felt she sensed my anguish.'

However, her arrogance once again got in her way and she ended up at Bulwood Hall young offenders' institute in Essex for 3 months.

This young offenders institute is where she would craft her devious plan.

Her blueprint was discovered during a routine cell search, it was titled Prison and After - Making Life Again and included a shopping list and logged in detail her plan to kill dismember and dispose of a victim in pursuit of £3 million. The shopping list consisted of sharp knives or butchers knives, guns, drugs and handcuffs.

She imagined several different scenarios including stalking an elderly woman in a wealthy area, posing as a student carrying out a questionnaire.

'Run lightly and silently behind her and cover her mouth with a gloved hand,' she wrote. 'Make her so scared she co-operates. Keep calm, composed and silent. She must co-operate or take a knife to her throat. Tell her, "This is your only warning... With your butcher's knife, remove her head. Wrap it in film to contain bleeding, detach limbs one by one.'

When these writings were discovered she told her psychiatrists and prison staff that her notes were part of the draft of a novel. And incredibly, they believed her. The psychiatric assessment carried out after the document was discovered claimed that it 'did not indicate any concern that Miss Adeyoola would be pre-disposed in any way to this type of violence - nor was there any evidence of this type of violence in her past'. It described her as a 'highly intelligent and sophisticated young person . . . who with good support should make a good recovery and engage in her A level studies.' Kemi told a psychiatrist that she had accused 4 grade A GCSE's which they believed and said they felt it was a shame that she had been arrested.

However after her release in November 2004,1 education wasn't even on her radar. She moved into a flat with another teenager, telling the court that her job as an 'escort' easily paid for her £800 a month flat. She claimed that 'It is a completely legitimate and professional business. We earned up to £5,000 a week.'

In March 2005 her first month without any supervision at an end, Kemi turned her words into action.

Mr Mendel left the home for just an hour to pick up the plane tickets for their upcoming trip to Israel, and within this hour, Anne Mendel was dead. Kemi attacked the elderly woman in her home, inflicting deep wounds to the victims torso, right arm and blade with a blade that was proven to be at least 1 inch wide and 5 inches long.

A spokesman for the Barnet Youth Offending Team said: 'There was nothing in the file that would have predicted homicide. The psychiatric report did not predict any likely occurrence of this.'

Kemi appeared at her trial dressed in a pinstriped suit pink trainers and spangly belt, and she reportedly seemed completely unmoved by her crime. She was smiling and actually exchanging text messages during court recesses.

She lied to the police over the nature of the DNA evidence that had been found on Anne's body, claiming that she had actually visited the pensioner the day before the murder and that the elderly woman has scratched her hand as she helped her across the road.

Kemi then used a 16 year old girl, who can't be named, to try and construct herself an alibi for her brutal crime.

Detective Chief Inspector Steve Morris called her 'a callous and devious young woman', adding: 'Her cold, calculated use of extreme violence beggars belief.'

The police investigating the case believe that Kemi never intended to stop there. In fact, they believe that Anne Mendel may simply have been a 'dry run' before targeting a wealthier victim. Detective Sergeant Paul Belsham said: 'If she had got away with this then God knows what she might have done. She is very very dangerous.'