Man bludgeoned fiancee to death after she said she was leaving him because of his cross-dressing

Roderick Deakin-White became ‘angry and jealous’ after Amy Parsons started new relationship

A man who beat his fiancee to death with a metal bar after she said she was leaving him because of his cross-dressing has been jailed.

Roderick Deakin-White, 38, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for the “horrendous and savage” attack on Amy Parsons, 35, while she was showering at the flat they shared in Whitechapel, east London.

Ms Parsons, originally from Australia, was left bleeding to death after suffering “horrific” head, facial and brain injuries in the attack on 25 April.

During the trial, the court heard how Ms Parsons, a personal assistant, had become increasingly unhappy with her relationship, particularly due to Deakin-White’s cross-dressing habits.

Prosecutor Gareth Patterson QC said at a previous hearing: “She was unhappy about this and this was something he had often wanted to do when they were intimate.”

He told jurors that Deakin-White became angry and jealous after Ms Parsons began a relationship with a colleague a few weeks before the murder.

“Unwilling to accept that she was going to leave him, he used a metal bar to hit her repeatedly around the head while she was showering in the Docklands flat which they shared,” Mr Patterson said.

Deakin-White fled the flat before confessing to a friend, who persuaded him to hand himself in.

Roderick Deakin-White, who has been jailed for a minimum of 17 years for the murder (Metropolitan Police)

In interviews with police, Deakin-White admitted attacking Ms Parsons with a metal bar but denied murder, claiming it was an “accident”.

Richard Carey-Hughes, mitigating, said Deakin-White had expressed remorse in the police station when he was recorded talking to himself and saying: “I feel like the nastiest person in the world. She would have been in so much pain.”

However, a jury found him guilty of murder and he was sentenced to a minimum of 17 years in prison, reduced by the 210 days that he has already served in custody.

Sentencing Deakin-White at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge John Lafferty told the defendant: “Your view was that if you can’t have her, no one can have her, and you killed her.

“There is no sentence I can pass upon you today that will bring back Miss Parsons – a young, successful, vivacious and kind-hearted young woman, whose life was brutally taken by you.”

Parsons’ sister, Eve, spoke of her family’s grief in a victim-impact statement read out in court.

She described Parsons as the “bright light” of the family and a “beautiful person”.

“Nothing could have prepared me to deal with this loss,” she said. “All of our family are as heartbroken as it is possible to be.”

Speaking after the sentencing, Ms Parsons’ sister said her family was “disappointed” by the length of the jail term and would be lodging an appeal, adding: “Seventeen years does not do her justice.”

Additional reporting by Press Association