Nicola Edgington (born 9 September 1980) is a British double killer who also attempted to murder a third person. Having killed her own mother in 2005, she attacked two strangers in the street in

Bexleyheath Bexleyheath is a town in south-east London, England. It had a population of 31,929 as at 2011. Bexleyheath is located south-east of Charing Cross, and forms part of the London Borough of Bexley. It is identified in the London Plan as one of ...

in 2011, killing one. She was convicted of

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

due to diminished responsibility,

attempted murder Attempted murder is a crime of attempt in various jurisdictions. Canada Section 239 of the ''Criminal Code'' makes attempted murder punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment. If a gun is used, the minimum sentence is four, five or seven ye ...

and

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

. Had the surviving victim of her attacks been killed, Edgington would be classed as a serial killer.

Early history

Edgington has a younger brother and younger sister and attended Sackville School. Edgington told police that she was abused by her father when younger. She had stays in care homes at times. She worked as a hairdresser, shop assistant and saleswoman. At age 17, she miscarried twins after being punched in the stomach by a violent boyfriend and at 19 she was pregnant again, by a drug-dealer boyfriend, and gave birth to a son three months prematurely. Edgington's mother Marion helped her care for the baby, until giving the boy to foster care. Edgington married a Jamaican man who is the father of her younger son. The sons were taken into care and then to Jamaica by her former husband.

Killing of her mother

On 4 November 2005, Edgington stabbed her 60-year-old mother, Marion, nine times in Forest Row,

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

for which she was convicted of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility (based on diagnoses of schizophrenia and emotionally unstable personality traits) at Lewes Crown Court on 23 October 2006. She was detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act 1983 and, following treatment and psychiatric evaluation, was released conditionally in September 2009, moving into a Greenwich flat.

Killing and attempted killing of strangers

Build-up

In September 2011, Edgington sent a message via Facebook to her brother saying she was not getting the help she needed, missed her mother, and had had a

miscarriage Miscarriage, also known in medical terms as a spontaneous abortion and pregnancy loss, is the death of an embryo or fetus before it is able to survive independently. Miscarriage before 6 weeks of gestation is defined by ESHRE as biochemical lo ...

. She left her phone number and asked him not to tell their father, Harry, that she had made contact. Her brother replied that she killed their mother and he found the body, that the miscarriage was good news, and that she should kill herself by cutting her wrists. Edgington sought help from the controversial Universal Church of the Kingdom of God prior to the attacks, as she had prior to the killing of her mother, which may have disturbed her further. On 6, 7 and 9 October, Edgington contacted police several times by phone and once in person reporting that individuals were making death threats against her (naming one individual), and later that two cocaine users were refusing to leave her flat and may have stolen from her. Despite initially being graded as serious and requiring police attendance, no police were dispatched to investigate. On the morning of 10 October 2011, Edgington pleaded numerous times with police and local mental health services to physically detain her under their legal powers as she felt she was having another psychotic breakdown, saying she had killed someone before and that the more scared she became the more dangerous she could be. Although taken to Queen Elizabeth hospital, she was left there by police prior to being securely admitted, and the psychiatric staff decided they were only going to admit her on a voluntary basis despite her risk profile and secure care plan being in her psychiatric file.

Attacks

Later in the morning of 10 October 2011, while waiting for staff to change shift and admit her, Edgington left the hospital through a door that should have been locked, took two buses, and stabbed two strangers in the street in separate attacks in

. She bought a knife from Asda with which she tried to kill 22-year-old Kerry Clark, who survived and a member of the public took the knife off her. Edgington subsequently stole a knife from a butcher's shop and stabbed and virtually decapitated 58-year-old Sally Hodkin, who died of her injuries within minutes. Edgington was arrested later the same morning.

Judgement

According to psychiatrists, Edgington was having paranoid

delusions A delusion is a false fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, hallucination, or some o ...

and

hallucinations A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the qualities of a real perception. Hallucinations are vivid, substantial, and are perceived to be located in external objective space. Hallucination is a combinatio ...

, with a religious subtext. She believed a 100-eyed monster was guarding the throne of God against enemies, and saw shops looking like a nuclear holocaust had taken place; she believed Jesus had come back to save everyone's souls except hers which she couldn't understand as she loved God. She also felt she was in a computer simulation and had various bizarre beliefs relating to famous figures and films. On 7 February 2013 at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

, Edgington was convicted by jury of the attempted murder of Clark and of the murder of Hodkin. Judge

Brian Barker Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world. It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word meani ...

jailed her for life on 4 March 2013, with a minimum tariff of 37 years. Barker wrote that despite Edgington's firm long-standing diagnosis of schizophrenia and probable psychosis around the time of the attacks, he believed the over-riding factor was

borderline personality disorder Borderline personality disorder (BPD), also known as emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD), is a personality disorder characterized by a long-term pattern of unstable interpersonal relationships, distorted sense of self, and strong ...

(known as "emotionally unstable personality disorder, borderline type" in the UK) with rational ability. He referred to a recent medical report indicating no need for hospital treatment for Edgington. Despite Edgington having sought multiple times to have herself detained by the police or medical services prior to her actions, Barker stated that the killing was premeditated in a way that showed a "consistent and calculated course of criminal conduct". Barker included the random and unprovoked nature of the attacks as aggravating factors indicating more guilt, while disregarding the

mitigating Mitigation is the reduction of something harmful or the reduction of its harmful effects. It may refer to measures taken to reduce the harmful effects of hazards that remain ''in potentia'', or to manage harmful incidents that have already occu ...

factor of mental disability since the psychiatric authorities disagreed about it.Sentencing Remarks of Judge Brian Barker
4 March 2013

References

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edgington, Nicola 1980 births 2005 murders in the United Kingdom 2011 murders in the United Kingdom 21st-century English criminals British female murderers British people convicted of attempted murder Crime in East Sussex Drug dealers English female criminals English people convicted of manslaughter English people convicted of murder English prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Living people Matricides Murder in London People educated at Sackville School, East Grinstead People from Forest Row People from Greenwich People with borderline personality disorder People with schizophrenia Place of birth missing (living people) Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by England and Wales British people with disabilities