Serial killer faces life in jail for ex’s murder
A violent and controlling serial killer is facing life behind bars after he admitted beating a former girlfriend over the head with a hammer and throttling her with a dressing-gown cord.
Theodore Johnson, 64, attacked mother of four and grandmother Angela Best, 51, on December 15, 2016, after they broke up and she started a new relationship.
Hours after killing her he threw himself in front of an express train at Cheshunt railway station in Hertfordshire but survived.
The wheelchair-bound defendant had pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Ms Best by diminished responsibility but denied murder.
He admitted the murder charge on the first day of his Old Bailey trial, as prosecutor Mark Heywood QC was preparing to open the case to the jury.
It can now be reported that Johnson has a history of violence towards women, having been twice convicted of manslaughter before.
In November 1981 the garage worker was convicted by a jury at Stafford Crown Court of killing his wife, Yvonne Johnson.
After an argument, he hit the mother of two with a vase before pushing her over the balcony of their ninth-floor flat.
Then in March 1993 he was convicted at the Old Bailey of killing his partner, Yvonne Bennett, by diminished responsibility.
Judge Richard Marks QC remanded him into custody to be sentenced on Friday.