Cousins jailed after stabbing great uncle to death at London flat for drug money

Pair left 66-year-old Leroy Junior Edwards for dead after finding just £20 in his home

Aaron Woolcock and Kerry Donovan were found guilty of killing their great uncle at the Old Bailey

Two cousins have been jailed to more than 40 years collectively for killing their great uncle during a robbery carried out to help feed their drug habits.

Kerry Donovan, 29, and Aaron Woolock, 30, took a hunting knife to the home of 66-year-old Leroy Junior Edwards in August last year, stabbing him and leaving him to bleed to death.

Mr Edwards was found collapsed in the hallway of his flat, in Catford, southeast London, after neighbours raised the alarm.

Donovan admitted she inflicted the wounds that killed her great uncle, while Woolcock later dumped their clothes and phones after the killing, the Old Bailey heard.

Sentencing Donovan for murder and Woolcock for manslaughter, judge Nicholas Heathcote-Williams QC said money was behind the killing.

He added the pair had fled without doing anything to help Mr Edwards. Only £20 had been in the flat at the time of the attack.

The judge said Donovan, who sometimes earned by money by cleaning for her great uncle, had been involved in an “inappropriate and unwise” sexual relationship with him as an adult in the years before the murder.

She had also “enlisted” Woolcock to help her with the robbery, he had “willingly provided” the knife to Donovan, and “knew for what purpose he was providing it”.

The pair had carried out the robbery “disinhibited by the crack cocaine, cannabis and alcohol,” the judge said.

Once inside, Donovan, armed with the knife, had struck Mr Edwards after he opened his door, as Woolcock “lurked in the background, ready to assist”, the court heard.

Donovan, of Southend-on-Sea, Essex, was told she will have to serve 26 years and 125 days for the murder.

Unemployed Woolcock, 30, of Lewisham, southeast London, was sentenced to 14 years after being found guilty of manslaughter.

The judge said Mr Edwards “offered no violence or threat of violence”.

The attack “must have inflicted significant terror and suffering on the victim during the, admittedly short, period he remained conscious”, he said.

The judge concluded that Woolcock’s motive for his “terrifying casual willingness to be party to an attack with the knife on an innocent man” was “also robbery to obtain money and, with that money, more drugs”.

A victim impact statement from Mr Edwards’ “heartbroken” children noted that “our dad should have been safe in his own home”.

They added that they had all lost someone “precious” to them and described Mr Edwards as a “loving, kind and gentle man” who tried to help all members of his family.

His death has left some of his relatives suffering panic attacks, anxiety and flashbacks, the court was told.

After the sentencing, DS Brian Jones of the Metropolitan Police said: “Whatever the motive, it resulted in the senseless death of a family man of good character in the home where he had lived for over 25 years.

“Woolcock and Donovan now face the consequences of their actions and I hope their conviction and prison sentence will provide some solace to Mr Edward's family and friends.”

Additional reporting by PA