A killer who knifed a mum to death in a row at a birthday party said ‘Good’ when she found out the victim had died, jurors have heard. Hope Rowe, 33, is on trial at Inner London Crown Court accused of stabbing 31-year-old Charlotte Lawlor to death outside Hebrides Court in Stepney Green, while her boyfriend Leigh Holder, 37, is charged with perverting the course of justice.
Closing speeches began on Wednesday (June 11) after Judge Freya Newbery gave legal directions to the jury, explaining to jurors Rowe’s admission of manslaughter, partial defences of diminished responsibility and loss of control. Judge Newbery told jurors they must pick between two experts with conflicting opinions about Rowe’s state of mind when she stabbed Ms Lawlor in the chest.
During the trial, jurors heard psychiatric evidence about Rowe’s personality disorder and previous convictions for violence. Called as a witness for the defence, Dr Tim Rogers said Rowe’s personality disorder had substantially impaired her ability to exercise self-control, while Dr Sheena Patel, called by the prosecution, disagreed, telling jurors she had not found any substantial impairment.
Giving her directions, the judge reminded jurors of Rowe’s claims that she feared for a child’s safety and wanted to get her keys back when Ms Lawlor came outside ‘looking for a fight’ and ‘repeatedly threatened to kill her’. Rowe also alleged she was struck with the keys and felt blood coming out before she went on knife Ms Lawlor – the details of which she claims she cannot remember.
But the prosecution say that it was Rowe who threatened to kill Ms Lawlor, and that she reached around her MMA-trained boyfriend, Mr Holder, taking Ms Lawlor by surprise with the knife. Prosecutor Charlotte Newell KC told jurors ‘no reasonable person’ would have acted like Rowe did, in reference to the legal test required for proving ‘loss of control’.
‘Good’
Facing accusations that he helped Rowe dispose of the knife and helped to drive her away from the scene, Mr Holder told the jury he had ‘no idea’ where the missing knife had gone, and claimed he drove Rowe away to stop her continuing with the attack. Mr Holder also claimed he lied to police about Rowe’s whereabouts because he was ‘stressed’ by the police firearms officers and their guns.
Ms Newell said Rowe’s defence of loss of control was ‘fanciful and based on lies’, reminding jurors of a voicemail between Rowe and Mr Holder after the stabbing. In the audio clip, which was played during the trial, Mr Holder replied to Rowes’ complaints about his behaviour, telling her ‘You absolute idiot. You killed her. You idiot. You absolute idiot’. To this Rowe replied: ‘Good’.
“That voicemail is the unvarnished truth about what was said and what was thought at the time, almost certainly unaware it was being recorded and that anyone would listen to it,” said Ms Newell, “And it shines the brightest light of what their state of mind was: She was pleased she killed Charlotte Lawlor and he wanted her to get away with it.”
Ms Newell also accused Rowe of ‘making speeches’ and ‘entirely false allegations about a dead woman’s family’ during her evidence, telling jurors they ‘might think it extraordinary’ that Rowe had ‘so much to say’ only once she had seen the evidence against her.
Offering an alternative explanation to Rowe’s claims, Ms Newell said: “She attacked her in revenge for disrespecting her and getting the better of her in a fight that she incited… She did not like the way Charlotte Lawlor stood up to her and spoke to her.
“Hope Rowe was not threatened with death or serious injury and Leigh Holder joined in and lied about it, and, we say, that leaves her defence in tatters.”
Ms Newell is expected to finish her closing speech tomorrow. The trial continues.
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