By Desire Emmanuel with Agency Reports
A Nigerian citizen living in the United Kingdom who murdered a woman he worked with after she ended their brief “controlling relationship” has been given a life sentence.
Adedapo Adegbola, aged 40, fatally stabbed Stephanie Irons, aged 23, in the neck at her home in Mapperley, Nottinghamshire, on the evening of 21 October.
Nottingham Crown Court heard Adegbola “had become obsessed” with Irons and planned to kill her.
On Thursday, February 5, Adegbola was told at the same court he would spend a minimum term of 25 years in prison following his guilty plea last month.
Speaking in court, Irons’s mother said: “I have no words to say how broken I am to have lost her in such a horrific way.”
Adegbola sobbed as the mother described her daughter’s “compassionate and caring” nature.
“She lit up the room and could make even the saddest person smile,” she said.
While sentencing Adegbola, Judge Nirmal Shant said: “You had been in a brief relationship with Stephanie Irons after you met as work colleagues.
“Your controlling behaviour led her to end the relationship. What is plain is that you were not prepared to accept that.”
The court heard Adegbola had purchased two knives and travelled by taxi to Irons’s home in Westdale Lane West, unknown to her, after they finished work on 21 October.
He arrived about 20 minutes later than her and after she appeared to take her bins out, he entered, leaving an hour and 50 minutes later.
Prosecuting, Peter Joyce, told the court Adegbola had sent a number of screenshots of sexually explicit messages from Irons’s phone to colleagues “probably after he had killed [her]”.
Concerned for Irons, two colleagues visited her home in Mapperley but when there was no answer, they called the police.
Officers were eventually able to get into the flat through a rear window.
The court heard Irons was found lying on her back on the floor, surrounded by blood.
Joyce said: “It is the prosecution’s case that he has become obsessed with this woman and could or would not accept that the relationship was over.”
