Asian mother’s killer jailed

A MAN was found guilty of murdering a mother of two in London and then attacking another stranger.

James Sinclair, 31, will be sentenced on Friday (8) for killing Shadika Mohsin Patel (above), 40, in East Ham.

He later attempted to kill another woman after he led her down a dark alleyway near Holloway Road and stabbed her repeatedly with a machete, but she survived the attack.

Sinclair was identified through CCTV and DNA evidence, the police said. After declining to attend his trial at the Old Bailey, he was convicted in his absence by the jury.

Prosecutor Bill Emlyn-Jones told the jury that the convict was caught on CCTV while carrying out his actions and his conversation was also recorded. “The defendant stabbed Shadika Patel seven times, before running away. He stabbed her in the face and in the head and in the shoulders. Both of her lungs were punctured,” the prosecutor said.

Jurors were shown the distressing footage in which Shadika can be heard screaming as she is repeatedly stabbed with the weapon. Local residents overheard her screams and emergency services rushed to the scene, discovering the 40-yearold in a critical condition.

Police said that Sinclair, the next day approached another woman named Beverley Barzey who was out late and alone. She was prepared to accompany him to a secluded location in order to engage in sexual activity with him in return for money.

But he attacked her, stabbing her repeatedly to the face and mainly to the upper body.

The Metropolitan Police were able to trace Sinclair to Providence House, a hostel on Three Colt Lane. Samantha Yelland, from the CPS, said: “These were opportunistic, unprovoked and vicious attacks on two women while they were alone... James Sinclair targeted his victims leaving them both for dead. Shadika Patel was a concerned mother who had packed a bag of food to take to her children ahead of the national lockdown.”