Overview
- A Southwark Crown Court jury found 44-year-old Alvin Gitahi guilty of murdering 35-year-old Vivienne Baraka after a trial that concluded on Thursday.
- Prosecutors told jurors that Baraka’s body showed bruising to the face and neck and burst blood vessels in the eyes, injuries they said were consistent with fatal neck compression.
- Baraka sent a desperate text saying she was "in danger" and asked her mother to call 999 on March 26, 2024, and police arrived about 20 minutes after the call to find her unresponsive on the bathroom floor of her Ealing flat.
- Evidence at trial included prior reports made to family and police in 2022 and 2023 describing repeated assaults, attempts at strangulation, threats including "I will finish you," and seized messages and phone records showing a pattern of abuse.
- Gitahi was remanded in custody and will be sentenced in October, a result the investigating officer and Baraka’s family said may provide some measure of accountability while highlighting the role earlier police reports and forensic proof play in prosecuting domestic homicide.