HACKNEY MAN SENTENCED FOR STRANGLING GIRLFRIEND IN CAR

Killer Gogoa Lois Tape strangled Kennedi Westcarr-Sabaroche in her car, drove her body around Hackney for hours, then confessed — now he’s been sentenced.

Gogoa Lois Tape, 29, born 11 September 1996, of Marsworth House, Haggerston, was sentenced at Inner London Crown Court on Monday, 1 September, for the killing of his partner Kennedi Westcarr-Sabaroche, 25, whose body was discovered in her car in Talavera Place, Hackney, on 6 April 2024

Tape received a hospital order under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act with an additional restriction order under Section 41, a sentence that allows him to be detained in secure conditions for an indefinite period.

The court heard how Tape killed Ms Westcarr-Sabaroche shortly after 11.25pm on Friday, 5 April 2024. CCTV captured him getting out of her vehicle, walking away, before returning to the driver’s side, where he bent forward and was seen lunging repeatedly into the car for approximately eight minutes.

A post-mortem later confirmed her cause of death as compression of the neck, with additional blunt force injuries to the face and incised wounds to her hands consistent with defensive actions against a knife attack.

Prosecutor Julia Faure-Walker told the court that following the fatal assault, Tape moved Ms Westcarr-Sabaroche into the passenger seat, fastened her seatbelt and then drove away in her vehicle.

For almost two hours he drove through the local area with her body in the car, stopping to purchase cigarettes and sending a message from her phone to a friend in an attempt to disguise the fact that she was already dead. He then returned to Talavera Place a number of times before leaving the car parked there.

Six hours later, at approximately 6am, he confessed to his brother, saying, “I killed Kennedi bro.” His brother checked the vehicle, found the body and alerted police at 6.42am. Officers attended the scene, recovered a kitchen knife from inside the car and arrested Tape, who made unprompted comments including, “I lost my head, I’ve been losing my head the last two or three years.”

The Crown initially charged Tape with murder on 7 April 2024, but he later entered a plea of guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility and to possession of a bladed article. Psychiatric evidence presented in court confirmed that at the time of the killing he was suffering from paranoid and persecutory delusions linked to schizophrenia.

Reports also documented his history of cannabis use since 2014, contact with mental health services in 2023, and previous warnings to abstain from drug use. In March 2024, shortly before the killing, Ms Westcarr-Sabaroche discovered a letter written by Tape in which he made references to wanting to kill both her and her mother. He dismissed it when challenged, saying he had not meant it.