Murdered mother’s child asks when she will return as killer gets whole-life term

One of the children of murdered Alana Odysseos still asks when her mother is coming back, her family have said, after her killer was told that he would die behind bars.

Ms Odysseos, 32, was pregnant with her third child when she was stabbed multiple times by her boyfriend, Shaine March, in Walthamstow, east London, in July 2024.

March, who was on life licence at the time of the killing for a previous murder, was handed a whole-life order on Thursday after judges at the Court of Appeal ruled his life sentence with a minimum term of 42 years was “unduly lenient”.

Speaking after the ruling outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Ms Odysseos’ father, Alan Yates, said he was “over the moon” and that “finally my daughter has got justice”.

He said that one of Ms Odysseos’ children does not know that her mother was murdered and “feels that her mother has left her”.

Mary Griffin, a relative of Ms Odysseos who also attended Thursday’s hearing, added: “She asks us when she is coming back.”

Mr Yates also said that Ms Odysseos’ family would seek to have the law changed in her name to protect women from domestic violence, adding: “Women need protecting. There is too much violence. There were over 100 killed last year.”

He said: “The original sentencing, I was pleased he got a lot, but I wanted what we just got.

“He will never get out, and that’s brilliant.”

He added: “We have fought as hard as we can.”

At the time of the murder, March, 48, was on life licence after being released from prison for fatally stabbing 17-year-old Andre Drummond in the neck at a McDonald’s restaurant in Denmark Hill, south London, in January 2000.

He and Ms Odysseos had been in a relationship for about four months, during which time March attacked her and stopped her from talking to family and friends.

He then fatally attacked Ms Odysseos at her home on July 22 2024, after they were heard arguing about whether she should have an abortion, and Ms Odysseos was heard to say: “I don’t want to kill my baby.”

She was later seen outside, bleeding from multiple stab wounds, shouting: “Shaine stabbed me, he stabbed me. Help, help.”

March left the scene and recorded a voice note saying “Mum, I just killed a woman, and I’m going back to jail”, before throwing his mobile phone in a drain.

Following his arrest, March said “I did it, I killed her, Alana Odysseos”, admitting murder on the seventh day of his trial, after an expert no longer supported his defence of diminished responsibility.

Sentencing him at the Old Bailey last October, Mr Justice Murray said the murder involved “prolonged and excessive violence” but that he did not consider the case to be one where “the need for lifelong imprisonment is clear beyond doubt”.

He based this on four factors, including that March suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was a teenager, which affected his ability to regulate his emotions, that both murders were not premeditated, and that he had pleaded guilty.

But the Solicitor General referred the case to the Court of Appeal, and barrister Tom Little KC told a hearing that a whole-life order was “just punishment”.

Lord Justice Edis, sitting with Mr Justice Cavanagh and Judge Alice Robinson, quashed the minimum term and imposed a whole-life order.

In a ruling, the judge said that the case was “distressing” and featured “cruel and persistent” behaviour towards Ms Odysseos, whose murder “arose out of the context of fear which he had instilled in her”.

He said that Ms Odysseos was “desperate for a secure and stable way of life”, but instead, “tragically, she came by Shaine March”.

He continued that March’s brain injury was not a “major cause” of his offending and that his guilty plea came “only when he had no alternative open to him”, adding that the death of the unborn child was a “serious aggravating factor”.

After the judgment, March, who watched Thursday’s proceedings via a videolink from HMP Belmarsh in London, addressed members of Ms Odysseos’ family in court and said: “I just want to say that I am sorry.”

The Solicitor General, Ellie Reeves, welcomed the ruling, adding that March was an “extremely dangerous offender” and that there was “no room for violence against women and girls”.

Shadow justice minister Kieran Mullan, who asked the Solicitor General to review the case, said that the original sentence was “clearly wrong and made a mockery of our justice system”, adding: “Alana’s family deserved to see a sentence that matches the crime.”