Camberwell stabbing: Man charged with killing woman in London's first murder of 2019

Michael Rolle, 34, charged with murdering 'beautiful' mother in early hours of New Year's Day

Charlotte Huggins, 33, was stabbed to death in the early hours of New Year's Day (Facebook)

A man has been charged with stabbing a woman to death in London’s first murder of 2019.

Charlotte Huggins, a 33-year-old mother, was killed in Camberwell hours after wishing her loved ones a “healthy, happy 2019” on social media.

Michael Rolle, 34, of nearby Dulwich, has been charged with murder.

A second man who was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender has been released under investigation.

Ms Huggins was remembered as a “beautiful person inside and out” by friends writing tributes on her Facebook page, which listed her as in a relationship.

“Always with a ready smile, a gentle, beautiful person inside and out, the world is a darker place without you,” one woman wrote. “You deserved better. Rest in peace sweet Charlotte.”

Another friend added: “Rest peacefully angel and watch over your beautiful daughter, another stolen way to young.”

Police were called in the early hours of New Year's Day by paramedics, who later pronounced her dead.

Ms Huggins’s death was the first homicide in London in 2019, and was followed by another murder an hour later.

Bouncer Tudor Simionov was stabbed as he tried to stop gatecrashers forcing their way into an exclusive Mayfair party.

The 33-year-old, who recently moved to the UK from Romania, was hailed as a hero for protecting his colleagues from a group of men who attacked two other security guards and a woman.

Detectives were also investigating a shooting at a nightclub in Hackney, east London, where a woman was shot in the leg.

The number of people killed in London hit a 10-year high in 2018 and more than a fifth of victims were children and teenagers.

It was the capital’s highest homicide total since 2008, which saw 14 people killed, and a 15 per cent rise year-on-year.

Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick had named street violence as her “number one priority” and acknowledged the last 12 months had been “challenging”.

At an end-of-year briefing with journalists, she said there had been a rise in domestic killings but that the number of young people being stabbed in public had fallen.