They met over their mutual love of motorbikes but when Aaron McKenzie refused to accept pregnant Kelly-Mary Fauvrelle had moved on he stabbed her 21 times in a frenzied fit of jealousy killing her and their baby.

He had driven his motorbike at 3am to the Fauvrelle family home in Raymead Avenue, Thornton Heath on June 29, 2019.

Knowing her bedroom was downstairs the 26-year-old crane operator of Peckham, broke in and stabbed his ex-girlfriend who was 33 weeks pregnant. Her family awoke to hear her screams as he fled. 

Her sister Melissa had come downstairs to find Kelly dying, in her bedroom, where the cot was set up ready for the arrival of her baby.

Ms Fauvrelle’s mother, Mary Patton, described being awoken by screams on the night of the attack, thinking her daughter was giving birth.

In her witness statement to police, she said: “I heard (daughter) Melissa screaming to call the police.

“I thought Kelly was having her baby.

“I saw Kelly had a pregnancy pillow round her neck. Blood was coming from her mouth. I could see she had been stabbed.”

The court heard Ms Patton ran into the garden and began screaming, where she collapsed.

McKenzie, within hours of the murder turned up for a driving lesson at 7am as if nothing had happened.

When he was told by police of the killing he had rushed to the hospital to be with his prematurely born son Riley who was delivered by caesarean section by medics at the scene after they were unable to save mum Kelly- Mary, also 26.

Riley was put on a ventilator but suffered brain damage from lack of oxygen during the traumatic birth and died four days later in hospital on July 3.

By then police had CCTV of the culprit showing McKenzie walking towards the murder scene at 03.15hrs and running in the opposite direction around ten minutes later before appearing on his Yamaha R1.

Callous McKenzie had joined Kelly’s family as they mourned her loss and police continued, for a time, to treat him as a witness.

As the investigation progressed McKenzie became a suspect and was arrested on 11 July 2019. 

The defendant allegedly lied to police and did not tell them that he had spent over an hour before the killing accessing and reading his ex-partner’s emails – realising she had moved on when he found an online receipt for men’s clothing she bought for fellow postal worker Rolander Chigwada who she had become close to.

McKenzie later admitted, via his solicitor, to being responsible for the deaths saying: “No one else was involved in this. There was no reason for it other than my faults”.

He was charged with murder, manslaughter and possession of an offensive weapon on Monday, 15 July 2019 and following a range of psychiatric examinations, despite his previous admissions, he pleaded not guilty to all charges. McKenzie claimed that when he admitted the offences he was under pressure. He also provided the first name of another man called Mike who he claimed was responsible for the murder.

Claire Mays, Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor, described the attack as a “vicious and cowardly attack on a heavily pregnant woman, borne out of jealousy”.

McKenzie was convicted of all counts and was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 35 years for the murder of Kelly-Mary, and a further 20 years for the manslaughter of their unborn child.

Judge Mark Lucraft QC said as he handed down the sentence for the “ferocious” attack.

It was the “cowardly” response to learning Miss Fauvrelle wanted nothing to do with him, and his actions afterwards demonstrated no “sorrow or remorse”, he said.

Kelly had previously been in a relationship with McKenzie, which had broken down some months before the murder.

McKenzie messaged her to say that he was feeling ‘not needed, not wanted, unimportant and lost’.

Ms Fauvrelle told him he needed professional help, saying: “Until u get the fact I don’t want to be with you anymore…I will no longer speak or see you unless is about the baby” (sic).

Last March 2019 , she told his mother that the relationship was “toxic”, but she would not deny him access to their child.

Messaging between the two of them suggests that she ended the relationship on 10 February 2019.

Mr Penny said: ‘At around this time, and throughout the spring and early summer it would appear that she had begun to spend more time with her male colleague from work called “Ro” whom she had come to call King.”

‘Although initially she was secretive about this relationship with Ro, by the summer of 2019 she had begun to be more open on the topic, at least with her sister Melissa.

‘Ro had given her a pair of trainers for her birthday and Melissa noticed that in the week before her death Kelly had begun to wear a bracelet bearing the name “Queen” on her wrist, matching the name King which Kelly tended to use for Ro.’

The happy new couple had arranged for Rolander to meet Ms Fauvrelle’s family the week after the horrific killing took place, jurors heard.

Victim statement

In an victim impact statement, Miss Fauvrelle’s sister Melissa said: “This was an act of pure evil.”

She said her sister was a selfless, caring, loving woman with a “pure heart”.

Her father Jean said: “Aaron McKenzie’s evil act has devastated our lives.

“My heart physically aches but those words do not feel sufficient.”

He said his daughter and grandson had been ‘stolen’, adding: ‘A baby comes into this world defenceless and it’s up to his mother and father to love and protect him and give him the world. Instead his father took away his world.’

Police statement

Detective Chief Inspector Mick Norman of the Met’s Specialist Crime Command said: “This case has been nothing short of heart-breaking for Kelly’s family and for the officers who have become close to them.

“The agonising loss of such a young woman and her child at a time when they were eagerly awaiting Riley’s birth and looking forward to a happy future is beyond imagining.

“Despite the evidence against him, McKenzie has subjected Kelly and Riley’s family to the trauma of a trial.

“The theft of Kelly and Riley’s happy futures is something that will haunt those who loved her forever and I sincerely hope that Aaron McKenzie is similarly affected as he faces his future incarcerated.”