Overview
- Apapale Adoum, 39, pleaded guilty to murdering Victoria Adams at the Old Bailey and was sentenced on October 30 to life with a minimum term of 21 years.
- Police found Adams dead in her Hammersmith flat on February 9 after reports of a man attempting to force entry to the property.
- Prosecutors said Adams met Adoum at a homeless shelter, let him stay, then asked him to leave before he bludgeoned her with a mallet, causing at least 10 head injuries.
- Investigators identified Adoum through CCTV and traffic camera footage, financial records, data from digital devices, a fingerprint on a bin bag, and Adams’s blood on a mallet found in his suitcase.
- He was arrested at the scene carrying knives and screwdrivers, first jailed for weapons offences, then re-arrested in June on suspicion of murder; the court heard of prior violent convictions as the family said she left four children.