Why was he still in the UK? Jamaican killer should have been deported 8 years ago
A DRUG dealer murdered a woman in her home – seven years after he should have been deported back to Jamaica.
Lloyd Byfield, 48, should have been kicked out of the UK in 2007 after he stabbed a former partner and was jailed for burglary.
But he remained at large until last year when he smashed his way into the flat of Leighann Duffy, 26, and battered and stabbed her to death with a claw hammer and a seven-inch knife.
The horrific attack was witnessed by a sixyear-old child who was hit on the arm by Byfield when she tried to intervene.
Byfield was jailed for life yesterday with a minimum of 26 years before parole after pleading guilty to murder. Judge Nicholas Cooke QC said the killing could have been prevented if ‘other systems worked as they should have done’.
Byfield came to the UK in 2000 and was granted indefinite leave to remain in June 2004 after marrying a British woman, despite being in a relationship with Patricia White, the mother of his child. Nine days before leave was granted, he stabbed Miss White with a chisel. Two months later, he broke into her husband’s home and ransacked it.
In March 2005, he was jailed for 30 months after pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and burglary and was ordered to be deported on May 29, 2007. Judge Cooke said: ‘You were to be deported but for reasons which cannot be explained to me, that was never actioned, with the result you were here and able to kill a woman.’ Byfield said he was in love with Miss Duffy and that she was sleeping with other men. But the judge said: ‘ That is not love. Love is caring and cherishing. This was obsessive, possessive, brutality mirroring a wholly wrong attitude to women. This was the pinnacle of domestic violence.’
Byfield had convictions for dealing cannabis in Jamaica and continued to do so in the UK, the Old Bailey heard. He had been staying with a friend in Hackney in the days leading up to the killing but was kicked out on August 31.
Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC said: ‘The defendant appears to have become fixated with Leighann Duffy in the weeks leading up to the murder.’
Byfield was captured on CCTV travelling to Walthamstow in the early hours of September 1. He appears to have spoken to Miss Duffy several times up until 2.33pm and launched his attack before 3pm.
The girl who witnessed the murder told police that Byfield banged 18 times on the front door of the flat in Walthamstow, east London.
He smashed his way in with the hammer and hurled it at Miss Duffy’s head before taking out a knife to stab her repeatedly in the neck and face. When Miss Duffy told him to stop, Byfield replied: ‘Shut up, I don’t love you any more. I hear you are sleeping with other men.’
The girl tried to intervene but was hit on the arm and forced away.
Byfield fled, and Miss Duffy died in hospital two days later. A postmortem examination revealed she had been stabbed 14 times.
Byfield, of no fixed address, showed no reaction as he was led to the cells and members of Miss Duffy’s family shouted ‘scumbag’.
Her mother Ann Kerr said in a victim impact statement: ‘The day Lloyd Byfield broke into Leighann’s house and attacked and murdered her completely ripped an entire family apart.’
A Home Office spokesman said the authorities had lost track of Byfield in October 2007, adding: ‘This is an appalling case.’