Theodore Johnson: Serial wife killer jailed for 26 years after murdering third partner

In 1981, 64-year-old was convicted of manslaughter for pushing his first wife off their ninth-floor balcony. In 1993, he strangled his second wife at their home

The 64-year-old met his third victim Angela Best on day release from a secure mental hospital (Met Police)

A garage worker who killed three of his partners over four decades has been jailed for 26 years for his latest “brutal and merciless” killing.

Violent and “controlling” Theodore Johnson kept his relationship with Angela Best a secret from authorities for 15 years and did not tell her about his past until she confronted him with letters about it.

The 64-year-old, who met his third victim while on day release from a secure mental hospital, is now likely to die in jail after attacking the mother-of-four with a claw hammer and strangling her with her dressing gown belt.

The 51-year-old grandmother had left Johnson and started a new relationship when she was killed.

After the killing Johnson jumped in front of an express train in Hertfordshire.

As he was being treated for severe injuries, police went to his flat and found Ms Best dead in the living room.

Johnson, who lost both arms and is now confined to a wheelchair, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to murdering Ms Best on 15 December 2016, and was jailed for a minimum term of 26 years on Friday.

Ms Best’s sister, Valerie Archibold, said preparations for a joyful Christmas were destroyed when the family learned of her “brutal and heinous murder”.

She described Ms Best as a generous and loyal person and the “life and soul of our family”.

The impact of her death was “immeasurable”, she said. “The shock still remains and the loss is traumatising, immense, profound and utterly devastating.”

Her son Raphael Best said: “My mother was the type of person who was always going out of her way to help people and unfortunately that was the reason she met her demise.”

The loss of his mother was “slowly driving me crazy”, he said, adding: “It makes me feel 10 times worse when I think of the kind person my mother was.”

Prosecutor Mark Heywood QC said Johnson had a violent history towards the women in his life, having been convicted of manslaughter twice before.

Johnson was born in Jamaica. He came to Britain in 1980 and worked at a car repair shop, shortly before killing his first wife in 1981, the court heard.

He was convicted by reason of “provocation” of killing his wife Yvonne Johnson by pushing her off the ninth-floor balcony of their home in Wolverhampton.

In 1993, a couple of years before meeting Ms Best, he was convicted of strangling his common law wife Yvonne Bennett with a belt at their home in London before trying to hang himself.

Prosecutors accepted that he was suffering from depression and a personality disorder and Johnson was handed a hospital order with restrictions at the Old Bailey.

In September 1994, Johnson was allowed out of his psychiatric unit for the first time on escorted community parole and in mid-1995, he was given unescorted leave to spend two days a week at a City and Guilds course on furniture restoration.

It was there in 1996 that he met Ms Best, who had moved to Tottenham, north London, from Manchester.

He was let out by a mental health tribunal in October 1997 on condition he tell supervising doctors and social workers if he formed any new relationships, which he repeatedly failed to do, even though he had already been seeing Ms Best for a year.

Prosecutor Mark Heywood QC said: “The tribunal recorded Mr Johnson was well aware of the need for extreme caution with regard to any further relationship with women.

“That decision having taken place on 30 October 1997, by then Mr Johnson had effectively been in a relationship with Ms Best for about a year or so during his unescorted release from secure accommodation.”

The court heard that, during a home visit, authorities spotted a “feminine wood carving” spelling out “Love” on the mantelpiece but did not become suspicious and also did not find Ms Best’s leopard-print dressing gown hanging up in the flat.

Johnson was last seen by a social worker and psychiatrist on 8 December 2016, days before the murder, and was not found to be depressed and continued to deny being in a relationship.

He had an appointment two days before Ms Best’s murder but it was put off because his social worker was sick.

In September 2016, the couple split up and Ms Best was said to be the “happiest” she had ever been after finding love with someone else, even though Johnson continued to profess his “undying love daily”.

On the morning of 15 December 2016, Ms Best had gone to Johnson’s home to help with an appointment with the Jamaican embassy.

Mr Heywood said: “Soon afterwards he attacked her. That attack was brutal and merciless. He used a claw hammer.

“He struck her repeatedly around the head even as she tried to protect her head with her hands.

“He then tied a dressing gown cord around her head and knotted it. She at that time was unable to defend herself.

“He did it, the prosecution say, for a simple reason, because after all that time that had gone before she was no longer prepared to stay with him.”

Valerie Archibold (left) and Lorraine Jones (right), the sisters of Angela Best, speak to the media outside the Old Bailey, London, after serial killer Theodore Johnson was jailed for a minimum term of 26 years for murdering his former partner Best (Yui Mok/PA Wire/PA Images)

After killing Ms Best, Johnson was seen to topple forward into the path on the oncoming 3.18pm express service, severing both arms.

Mitigating for Johnson, Annette Henry QC said her client was likely to die behind bars.

She said: “He does not wish to be alive. He hates himself for what happened.

“We recognise the devastation felt by the family members.”

She said the mental health tribunal’s condition on Johnson’s release was flawed as it relied on “self reporting” any new relationship.

She said: “This was a dilemma and the tribunal found it was fraught with difficulty in trying to monitor.”

Judge Marks said: “This was a deception that must have gone on for something like 15 years.”

Camden and Islington NHS Trust, which was responsible for Johnson’s care in the community since 2004, said it would provide Ms Best’s family with an independent report and that Johnson’s treatment complied with conditions set by the Mental Health Tribunal which oversaw his discharge in 1997.

Agencies contributed to this report