A man has admitted stabbing his pregnant girlfriend to death at her home in Walthamstow, east London
A man has admitted stabbing his pregnant girlfriend to death. Alana Odysseos, 32, was in the early stages of pregnancy with her third child when she was killed by Shaine March at her home in Walthamstow, east London, last July 22.
On Wednesday March, 47, pleaded guilty to her manslaughter by diminished responsibility on the first day of his trial. March, of Rainsborough Avenue, in Surrey Quays, south-east London, has previously denied murder.
Prosecutor Louise Oakley is expected to open the case on Thursday after a jury is selected and sworn in. The trial is being heard at the Old Bailey before Mr Justice Murray. The senior judge told jurors: “Try the case only on the evidence you hear in this trial and remain at all times faithful to your oath or affirmation.”
Alana’s sister, Jasmine Yates, 26, previously said that she will be remembered as a “pure-hearted person” after her death. Ms Yates, a stay-at-home mother from Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, said: “We’re all truly devastated and struggling so much to come to terms with this that we feel so much anger at the same time.”
Ms Yates said her sister had two daughters aged 12 and two and was “such a happy and bubbly person. She completely doted on her children and she was so excited to become a mother again because she just found out she was four weeks pregnant,” Ms Yates said.
“She loved her music you’d always find her with her Alexa on loud in the kitchen just singing and dancing away. She had a mouth on her, she was very mouthy, but she was always the one that would be there when you needed her she was just such a kind, pure-hearted person.”
“Definitely she will be remembered for her mouth and she will be remembered for how much of a brilliant mother she was and for everything she overcame to turn her life around.”
She added Ms Odysseos was “just the best sister anybody could ask for”. “We had the normal sister arguments that most sisters will have, but when it came down to it, me and her were there for each other,” Ms Yates said.
“We could talk about anything, absolutely anything, that we couldn’t talk about with other people, like we were so close these last few years. It’s the closest we’ve ever been in our lives.”
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