A man who fatally stabbed his girlfriend in the early hours of New Year’s Day has been found guilty of murder.
Michael Rolle, 34, was sentenced to life at the Old Bailey on Friday after being found guilty of former girlfriend Charlotte Huggins’ murder on Thursday.
Family and friends of the “beautiful, friendly and outgoing” victim cheered and clapped. Rolle will serve a minimum term of 20 years.
Supporters in the public gallery shouted down to the dock: “Rot in hell. Now your misery starts”, as the smirking defendant was sent down.
Outside court, the victim’s father Philip Huggins danced and hugged friends and family who had packed into the courtroom.
He said: “I’m so happy he cannot do it to another woman. We got justice for Charlotte.”
Huggins’ father cheered and said: “I’m so happy he cannot do it to another woman.”
Rolle knifed the mother-of-one in the back at her home in Camberwell, south-east London, after she returned from celebrating the New Year in a pub.
Afterwards, Huggins staggered away and said “he stabbed me” before she collapsed, the Old Bailey heard.
The defendant claimed the 33-year-old victim had been holding a kitchen knife behind her back when she tripped and fatally injured herself in a “freak” accident.But jurors heard how the jealous and controlling man had threatened Huggins with knives just days before the killing at her 33rd birthday party.
As she returned to the home she shared with her aunt and 10-year-old daughter, she told a friend she would be “looking out for Michael the maniac”.
He barged into her home at 4am and forced a childhood friend to leave before he stabbed her while in the grip of a “drink and drug fuelled jealous rage”, the court heard.
Afterwards, Rolle tried unsuccessfully to persuade his other partner to dispose of his bloody clothes.
Sentencing, Judge Heather Norton said: “It is perhaps a very little comfort to some of her friends that the last memory they will have of her alive is her laughing and dancing.
“As well as reasons to be happy and to celebrate, Charlotte also had reasons to be cautious when she left that pub to go home.”
She told the defendant: “Charlotte was a small and slight woman. You stabbed her in the back.
“There was no sign she could have done anything to defend herself from you.”
Afterwards, Huggins’ young daughter had to be woken up carried out of the house, past the bloody scene.
Huggins is the first person to be killed in
London in 2019.
During the trial, prosecutor Gareth Patterson QC told how Rolle would “behave in a controlling way” towards Huggins and was “jealous” of any contact she had with other men.
In a victim impact statement, Huggins’ father said: “We all loved her so, so much and are heartbroken she has been taken from us. Charlotte was a beautiful person inside and out.
“Charlotte was a gem. She would do anything for anyone.
“It destroyed our lives - how can we ever celebrate New Year’s Eve again.”
Huggins’ foster mother and aunt Peggy Mackie said her 10-year-old daughter had been “traumatised at losing her mum”.
She said: “No child should lose a parent under such circumstances. She should grow up with her mother there. We all miss her ever so much.”Detective Inspector Domenica Catino of the specialist crime command led the investigation said that Rolle took no responsibility for his actions throughout the trial and portrayed himself to be the victim.
“He professed his deep love for Charlotte yet callously watched her take her last few breaths before cowardly cycling away, never stopping to look back, never stopping to help her or even phone for help.
“Rolle had no regard for Charlotte as she lay dying but in giving evidence focused only on the effect it had on him, not considering for a moment the effects on Charlotte’s family, or her 10-year-old child who has to face a future with no mother”.
Catino claimed Rolle instead prioritised fabricating a story to avoid prosecution.
“In the days leading up to his arrest Rolle came up with a truly unbelievable fantasy of Charlotte stabbing herself in the back, making numerous notes to ensure he covered all angles, and then trying to gain sympathy by declaring it to be suicide note,” said the detective.
“These were the efforts of an intensely jealous man who showed no remorse and blamed everyone but himself”. Related... Man Guilty Of Murdering Charlotte Huggins On News Year's Day Man To Stand Trial Over New Year's Day Murder Of Charlotte Huggins Man Denies Murdering Girlfriend On New Year’s Day