Source: United Kingdom London Metropolitan Police
A man has been sentenced after admitting to the manslaughter of his partner following her death in Wembley.
Leonidas Georgalla, 51 (31.05.72) was jailed for 12 years with an extended licence period of five years, following a hearing at the Old Bailey on Friday, 1 September. He had admitted to the manslaughter of 39-year-old Kathleen John at an earlier hearing at the same court.
The incident happened in the early hours of Friday, 29 July 2022.
Emergency services were called at around 02:20hrs to London Road, Wembley to reports that a woman had fallen from a height.
Officers and paramedics arrived and found Kathleen motionless, suffering significant injuries in a pathway at the rear of the address. Despite their best efforts, Kathleen died at the scene.
The window Kathleen had fallen from was two floors up; when officers entered the flat they found blood along with broken items, indicating there had been some sort of disturbance. Georgalla – who was in a relationship with Kathleen and was present outside the flat when the emergency services arrived – was arrested.
A post-mortem examination concluded that Kathleen was suffering injuries consistent with an assault in addition to the injuries she suffered from the fall.
Officers established that Georgalla had breached a restraining order in relation to being with Kathleen – this was in relation to previous incidents of domestic violence. A check of Georgalla’s criminal record showed previous instances of domestic abuse.
Throughout his police interview, Georgalla refused to answer any of the questions officers put to him. He was charged with Kathleen’s murder on 30 July, but a plea of manslaughter was subsequently accepted.
Detective Inspector John Marriott of the Met’s Specialist Crime Command who led the investigation said:
“Leonidas Georgalla is a danger to women with a history of domestic violence offences. At the time of Kathleen’s death, there was a restraining order against him for previous abuse she had suffered and officers established previous incidents where he had been convicted of domestic violence offences in other countries.
“We will never know the exact circumstances of how Kathleen came to fall from the window of her flat but the post mortem examination shows she had sustained assault injuries in the moments prior to this. While Leonidas has admitted responsibility for her death, this will be of little solace to Kathleen’s family and friends.
“Tackling violence against women and girls remains a key priority for the Met and we continue to strive to improve how we identify and investigate offending. Training focused on domestic abuse has been given to over 8,000 frontline officers so we can improve our initial response to these incidents; there are also specialist public protection units across the Met who will investigate allegations of domestic abuse and support those who report offences.
“If you are in an abusive relationship, or know someone who is, I would urge you to contact police so we can investigate and provide support.”