Man beat carer with brick and left body in his home

A man who killed his carer and kept her body in his home while using her credit card to go shopping has been jailed for at least 12 years.

Irene Mbugua was a live-in carer for 35-year-old David Walsh, but he strangled and hit her with a brick, leaving her semi-naked body under a sofa in his kitchen in June last year.

She was found at his Winson Green home in Birmingham by police two days later after Walsh used her credit card at a local shop and a JD Sports store.

Walsh pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility in February. In handing him a life sentence at Birmingham Crown Court, the Honourable Mr Justice Wall KC said it was a "brutal and motiveless" killing.

Warning: This story contains details that some readers will find distressing

Mbugua, who assisted Walsh with his ongoing mental health, having been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, ADHD and autism spectrum disorder, was last heard from at about 18:00 BST on 21 June when she sent a text to a colleague from his home in Markby Road.

The attack happened soon after, Wall said, and CCTV in the area picked up screaming at about 18:30, which went on for "some minutes".

The following day, Walsh was seen going to nearby convenience stores where he used her card to pay for items and then went to a JD Sports branch and bought some new clothes.

He returned home at about 13:00 and when he encountered some neighbours told them: "We are free from death and pain and have done what we have done", the court heard.

He also grabbed one by the wrist and stated: "Repent since and all will be forgiven".

When a co-worker had not heard from mother-of-four Mbugua, he went to the property but no-one answered and he called the police.

Officers forced entry into the home and found flooding inside from a tap in the upstairs bathroom and also traces of blood around the house, the court heard.

Walsh then darted outside from a room in the house, completely naked, and acted aggressively towards officers trying to restrain him.

Officers were spat at at, bitten and bruised by Walsh. He was tasered and Pava spray was also used to subdue him before he was taken to hospital.

When officers returned to the property on 23 June, they found a door to the living room was shut by a sofa and found Mbugua's body underneath. Part of the ceiling had collapsed on to her due to the upstairs flooding.

Walsh later told doctors he strangled her and hit her about the head with a brick at least 10 times before moving her body downstairs. Mbugua suffered fractures to her skulls and ribs.

Despite his poor state of mental health and guilty plea, Wall said Walsh still bore responsibility for the killing, telling him he had caused "profound and lifelong harm" to the family.

He had stopped taking his medication some five months before the attack and also stopped attending medical appointments a few weeks before.

Victim impact statements read out to the court from Mbugua's 17-year-old son said he was "numb" and that he had "lost my world".

Her sister-in-law, Nancy, said she was "completely broken".

"She went to work and never came home and the person she cared for did this to her," she said.

Defending Walsh, Philip Bradley KC said the killing took place against a backdrop of severe mental illness and overall Mbugua had helped him greatly, and they had "a positive relationship".

Walsh had also admitted four counts of assaulting an emergency worker and was sentenced to four months to run concurrently for each count.

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