London thug who battered boy to death jailed for life
The father of a five-year-old boy who was battered to death by his mother's new boyfriend has told of how his life has been 'a nightmare' since his son's death.
Leroy Malcolm said he had struggled to watch killer Marvyn Iheanacho lie throughout his trial for the murder of Alex Malcolm and has suffered depression ever since, adding he had been denied access to his son before his death because he 'had a better man in his life'.
Iheanacho, 39, battered his girlfriend Lilya Breha's child to death in a park in Catford, south-east London, for losing a shoe.Â
He attacked with such savagery that witnesses who overheard eight 'booming' blows initially thought two grown men were fighting. They heard the child begging for mercy, sobbing, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry.'
Instead of taking the dying boy to hospital only a five-minute walk away, Iheanacho carried him through the street before taking a cab to his mother's home in Bromley, south-east London, where he attacked her, throttling her as she tried to call 999.
When Miss Breha managed to raise the alarm two hours later, doctors were unable to save the youngster, who had 22 bruises from head to toe. He died two days later following a bleed to the brain.Â
Iheanacho was jailed for life at Woolwich Crown Court today with a minimum sentence of 18 years imposed.Â
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Leroy Malcolm, left, has paid tribute to his murdered son Alex, right, and said he was 'not allowed to see him before he died because there was a better man in his life'
Marvyn Iheanacho (left) flew into a rage and subjected Alex Malcolm (right) to a brutal attack. He was jailed for murder today for life, with a minimum sentence of 18 years
Iheanacho had been in a relationship with Lilya Breha, the mother of Alex (pictured together)
Miss Breha, pictured, said her son was 'her purpose for living' and added 'life feels silent without him'
In a statement read to the court Mr Malcolm said it was 'impossible' for him to put his reaction to the murder into words.
He said: 'It's hard for any parent to deal the death of their child. He was a loving, energetic boy. There were times when I was not allowed to see him, and I was told there was a better man in his life.
'I'm appalled at the violent past of the defendant and it doesn't make sense to me that he was in charge of Alex's life.
'I felt scared, angry and confused when I heard Alex was in hospital. I will never forget seeing him in the hospital bed fighting for his life. That image will stay with me forever.
'During the trial I having to listen to him continually deny what he did in order to save his own neck was difficult.
'After his death I suffered depression, struggled to sleep and often have nightmares.Â
'Alex had three older brothers, and he was my youngest.
'That he will never get the chance to grow and get to know his older brothers is devastating. I love Alex with all my heart and miss him deeply.'
Speaking after the sentencing, Miss Breha recalled her fear when she was attacked as she tried to call for help for Alex who had been badly beaten in a park by her then partner.
She said: 'Obviously I was screaming all the time and crying and constantly I remember just keep asking him "What have you done to Alex?" and obviously he keeps telling me all the different things, and then at some point I just got like really angry and he was sitting in bed and I was standing by Alex's ro om and I just remember looking at him and I said exactly that, I said: "You are a danger to my family."
'And that's it, he just jumped on me and he hit me straight away. He gave me a straight punch in my face and then, with his knee he hit me on my chest.
'And 'til today it hurts, it's actually really hurt me a lot until this day. And then he just starts strangling me with one of his arms. And I couldn't say anything.
'And those moments I knew that is what it feels like to die because my eyes start rolling.'Â
The attack came after the child lost a shoe. One of his trainers was found at the park (left) and another one was found inside Miss Breha's home (right)
She added: 'I just managed to put my hand out because he was constantly screaming 'have you calmed down?'
'And I just put my hand out and he just dropped me on the floor. I constantly was just trying to manage to phone the ambulance but it was hard. It was just like really hard to do.'Â
On the sentence, Ms Breha added: 'I was pleased with the conviction for sure because he did murder my son.
'And the sentence I feel obviously it will never be enough but I think in England I guess this is as much he probably can get.'Â
Judge Mark Dennis QC said the child killer has a 'deeply entrenched character flaw' that leads him to overreact and lose his temper.Â
He added Iheanacho's first instincts following the attack were to 'protect himself' rather than help the boy and that it was 'only a matter of time' before a 'tragedy' occurred.
Iheanacho was sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court, wh ere he was earlier convicted of the child's murder.Â
Judge Dennis said the jury had rejected Iheanacho's defence that the injuries to Alex were accidental.
He said: 'Those injuries were caused by a fit of anger...it was a sudden and wholly unnecessary loss of temper which started outside the park gateway by a builders yard.
'On this occasion when the violence had subsided and you realised what you had done to the child, your thoughts turned not to helping, but to protecting yourself trying to cover up what had just happened.
'This time the consequences were more serious than ever before. You used your undoubted strength and simple brute force against the child, and you used your hands rather than kicking him.
'You were a strong an overpowering figure. He was completely defenceless. The child had done nothing to justify any loss of temper let along a violent loss of temper.Â
'All the child was heard to say was in a soft voice 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry'.
The judge said Iheanacho's previous convictions 'reflect a disturbing pattern of violent behaviour', adding: 'It was perhaps a matter of time before such violence ended in a tragedy like this.'Â
In a statement read to the court Leroy Malcolm said: 'The murder of my beautiful son is impossible to put into words. It's hard for any parent to deal the death of their child.'
He added:Â 'That he will never get the chance to grow and get to know his older brothers is devastating. I love Alex with all my heart and miss him deeply.'
His mother also spoke of the tragic loss of her only child in a statement read to the court.
Miss Breha said: 'He was beautiful, shy lo ving and caring. He was the first person I truly loved.
'Every single day I cry, thinking about him, I ask God to take me too, or not to wake up from my sleep so I can hear his voice again.
'He was my strength and purpose for living. My entire life feels silent without him it it.
Iheanacho, who was known to Alex as 'Daddy Mills', admitted beating the boy before in a note
A police photograph of notes written by Iheanacho in prison, under the heading 'mistakes'
'Nothing will ever be the same without Alex, my life ended when Alex died.'Â
It emerged during the trial that Iheanacho had phoned Ms Breha from prison to pressure her to back him up in court.
'There have been problems with witness interference. The defendant has phoned the mother of the deceased,' said prosecutor Eleanor Laws QC.
'We would say pressure is being exerted on the mother of the deceased, with the defendant pressing upon her his defence of accident.'Â
Alex' s head, neck, and body were covered with bruises after the attack on November 20 last year.
Iheanacho, from Hounslow, west London, carried the unconscious boy to a minicab office and took him to Ms Breha's flat, while the nearest hospital was just a five-minute walk away.
He then attacked Ms Breha when she tried to call an ambulance, but she managed to grab the phone after noticing her son was getting cold, his face had turned blue and he had stopped breathing.
Doctors at Lewisham Hospital tried to resuscitate Alex, but a CT scan showed he was suffering from severe brain swelling, and he was transferred to King's College Hospital.
He was pronounced dead on November 22 after an unsuccessful operation.
Last week Ms Breja spoke of her anger that she only learned about her partner's violent past after he beat her five-year-o ld son to death.Â
The burly thug with a terrifying temper was allowed to look after the boy after he embarked on a new relationship.
The red jacket worn by Alex on the day he was subjected to an attack that led to his death
Marvyn Iheanacho (left) was found guilty of battering the five-year-old boy to death in a park
The single mother was never told by police he had just been released from prison for assaulting his fifth girlfriend.
On a trip to the park on November 20 last year, the jobless father-of-three lost his temper when his new partner's son lost a trainer.
Iheanacho had denied murder, but was convicted yesterday. A jury at Woolwich Crown Court took six hours to dismiss his story that Alex accidentally fell off his shoulders as he walked back from Mountsfield Park in Catford, South-East London. Iheanacho, of Hounslow, West London, will be sentenced on Tuesday.
Miss Breha only learned of his past during his trial. He had so many convictions it took prosecutors 15 minutes to read them out.
The Anti- social Behaviour, Crime and Police Act 2014 gave police the power to request a criminal behaviour order in cases of domestic violence, forcing offenders to tell officers every time they begin a relationship so police can warn new partners about them.
But Miss Breha, who had a five-month relationship with Iheanacho, was never contacted by police or made aware of his appalling past after they met through a mutual friend as he was being released from prison.
Iheanacho (left) has a string of previous convictions for violent offences, including attacks on ex-partners and robbery. Ms Breha (right) nodded as the verdict was announced in court today
The incident took place in Mountsfield Park (pictured) in Hither Green, South East London
The Ukrainian mother, who occasionally left her son in Iheanacho's care while she worked two jobs as a baby sitter and dog minder, wept as he was convicted at the earlier trial.
'It's a joke,' she said. 'I just wish I'd known. I knew he had been in prison, but he said he was innocent. I had no idea about his past and the first time I heard about it I was disgusted. I was so shocked. I just felt sick.
'I was so naive. He would come over and help Alex with homework. I trusted him. He had his own kids. I never imagined this would happen. Something should have been done with someone like that.'
Ms Breha, 30, described Iheanacho as a 'good liar' and pathetic.
Recalling how she met him through a frie nd after he left prison she said he had convinced her he was innocent and a good person.
She said: 'When I think about it now to be honest I feel like it was all such a big lie and he just pretended to be a good guy pretty well.'
She added: 'I think he hid this (a temper) as well pretty well, until the point he just probably snapped.'
Asked what she hoped for at the sentencing, she said: 'That he never come out again to be honest. I don't feel that he should be out in the first place, after everything he did before.'
She said she is constantly reminded of Alex since his death, adding: 'Everywhere I go, everywhere I look I see him, climbing, jumping, screaming my name. It just, it has broken my heart.'Â
Iheanacho's first conviction for domestic violence dated back to the age of 19, when he punched a girlfriend in the face, kicked her in the ribs and stamped on her head after she refused to lend him £5.
In 2010, he battered another partner with a saucepan with such force that he dented the pan before dragging her around the kitchen by her hair and stamping on her face just because she would not let him borrow her car.
Iheanacho then turned on her 13-year-old son as he tried to save her, punching him in the face and kicking him in the head. Two years later he knocked another girlfriend unconscious by punching and kicking her in the head because she refused to lend him her phone.
In 2013 he throttled a fourth partner when she told him he could have a duplicate of his son's birth certificate instead of the original.
In March last year he was jailed for whipping another girlfriend with a belt, grabbing her by the throat and shoving a bottle into her face just because she asked him to put something in the bin.
Miss Breha paid tribute to her son, saying: 'We called him little angel. He was perfect. He was my best friend. He was my strength and my purpose for living. The hardest thing I have ever had to hear, was that my child died.'
Iheanacho, of Hounslow, West London, denied murder before the Woolwich Crown Court trial
Ms Breha said Alex had been her 'purpose for living' and she had been lying next to him in hospital with her hand on his chest, feeling 'every single one of his final heartbeats'
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