Handyman Carl Cooper is accused of murdering two girlfriends a year apart, a London court hears.
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A handyman accused of killing two girlfriends more than a year apart was a “callous bully” who was “prone to violence when challenged”, a jury has been told.
The women were described in court as “vulnerable”.
Ms Hunte was found dead at her home in Woolwich, south-east London, in February 2022.
Ms Holm disappeared about a year after Ms Hunte was discovered. Her body has not been found.
Carl Cooper, 66, denies murdering former girlfriends Fiona Holm and Naomi Hunte.
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In a callout by police on 24 November 2020, Ms Hunte told officers: "I think he is obsessed with me. He told me he really likes me. I told him, I just want to be friends. He was angered at that."
Ms Hunte said she was "really scared" and reported that Mr Cooper had warned her he was "going to wait out here until the morning, I'm going to watch where you go and who you go and see".
She said they had slept together but were not in a relationship and had separated some days earlier.
In a callout to her home on 29 June 2021, Ms Hunte told officers that Mr Cooper "stalks me and I'm really scared now".
Jailing Cooper for life with a 35-year minimum term at Woolwich Crown Court on Tuesday, Mr Justice Johnson said: “I am sure that you, over many years, have been a great danger to women.”
The judge added: “You have a history of acting in a controlling and coercive manner to your female partners.
“Ms Hunte had made previous complaints to police about your controlling coercive behaviour.
“Ms Holm had also made a previous complaint to police about your behaviour, she had also complained to friends that you had stabbed her with a screwdriver.”
Detective Chief Inspector Kate Blackburn, who leads the investigation, said: “My team has carried out a huge amount of work to try to find Fiona, using specialist teams to search areas she was known to frequent, open spaces, bodies of water, houses, cars and lockups. Thousands of hours of CCTV has been seized and viewed, substantial mobile phone enquiries have been reviewed and hundreds of witness statements have been taken, including interviews with Fiona’s family and friends. Those efforts have continued since Cooper’s conviction.
“This Christmas, our thoughts are with Fiona’s family, who are still waiting for answers almost two years after her tragic murder. Our thoughts are also with Naomi’s family at this difficult time
The Met is renewing its reward of up to £20,000 for help finding the remains of a murdered woman, as her family face their second Christmas without her
Fiona Holm loved people. “She’d be talking to everyone,” her daughter Savannah says, laughing about what would happen when her mum came on to the ward where she gets her sickle cell treatment. “I’ll tell her, ‘Can you sit down next to me?’ And she’ll be like, ‘All right, I’m just going to go speak to my mate.’ And I’m like, ‘Who is your mate? You don’t know no one in here!’ She’d be asking everyone, ‘Are you OK, are you warm? Your eyes are really yellow – have you been taking your medicine?’”
More than 170,000 people go missing in the UK each year – and Holm was one of them. She was adored by her family, who say she was let down again and again by the state, the police and the media
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