The mother of a woman killed by her boyfriend says she feels “completely betrayed” by the justice system after he received a hospital order for manslaughter.
Gogoa Lois Tape, 28, has been detained under the Mental Health Act after strangling 25-year-old Kennedi Westcarr-Sabaroche in Hackney, east London, in April last year.
After killing her, he drove around with her body before later confessing to his brother.
The defendant was initially charged with murder, but prosecutors accepted a guilty plea to manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.
The two met when they were teenagers in college about 10 years ago and have a daughter.
Around 40 of Ms Westcarr-Sabaroche’s loved ones attended the sentencing at Inner London Crown Court, with some leaving the courtroom as the defence read statements from the defendant’s family describing him as a loving person before his mental health declined.
Judge Freya Newbery issued Tape a hospital order under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act, along with a Section 41 restriction, allowing for his indefinite detention.
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She said he was an “undiagnosed schizophrenic” at the time of the attack, suffering from “paranoid and persecutory delusions” that severely affected his judgement and self-control.
System ‘failed us’
Linda Westcarr, the victim’s mother, said after the hearing she was “devastated” at the outcome and that “although I don’t dismiss mental health and the challenges and struggles that people face, we still feel justice has not been served”.
“The system has failed us in many ways – failed to support us, failed to explain to us the decisions that they have made,” she said.
“We haven’t been consulted with we’ve been dictated to. That needs to change.”
The family have demanded an urgent review of Tape’s sentence, and a meeting with the prime minister, the home secretary and the lord chancellor and director of public prosecutions “to answer for these failures.”
‘I stand with the family’
Emma Webber, whose son Barnaby was killed by Valdo Calocane in Nottingham in 2023, spoke out after he was given a hospital order for admitting manslaughter due to diminished responsibility in the triple stabbing. She said: “I stand with Kennedi’s family not just in grief, but in outrage.”
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A review of the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) handling of Calocane’s case concluded that accepting the manslaughter plea was justified, but highlighted areas where the case could have been better managed.
The report urged ministers to revisit long-standing Law Commission proposals to introduce a three-tier system for homicide charges-first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and manslaughter-a reform also recommended by Chief Inspector Anthony Rogers of His Majesty’s CPS Inspectorate.
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Julian Hendy, director of Hundred Families, a charity which supports families bereaved by people with mental health problems, said defendants sentenced to a hospital order can often return to the community on licence after five to 10 years.
