A UK-based Nigerian man, Adedapo Adegbola, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a young woman he worked with, after she ended what prosecutors described as a brief but controlling relationship.
Adegbola fatally stabbed Stephanie Irons, 23, at her home in Mapperley, Nottinghamshire, on 21 October. He later handed himself in to police and pleaded guilty to murder.
At Nottingham Crown Court, the court heard that Adegbola had become obsessed with Ms Irons and planned the attack after she decided to end the relationship. On Thursday, the judge ordered that he must serve a minimum of 25 years in prison before being considered for parole.
Sentencing Adegbola, Judge Nirmal Shant KC said the defendant refused to accept the end of the relationship and acted out of control and entitlement.
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“You had been in a brief relationship with Stephanie Irons after meeting as work colleagues,” the judge said. “Your controlling behaviour led her to end that relationship. What is plain is that you were not prepared to accept that.”
The court was told that on 15 October, six days before the killing, Adegbola bought two knives. On the day of the attack, he travelled to Ms Irons’s home and stabbed her multiple times, with a fatal wound to her neck.
Prosecutor Peter Joyce KC said that after the attack, Adegbola used Ms Irons’s phone to send screenshots of sexually explicit messages to colleagues, likely after she had already been killed.
Despite the severity of her injuries, Adegbola remained at the scene as Ms Irons lay dying before fleeing with her keys and phone. He later disposed of his clothes and the knife used in the attack. The following day, 22 October, he handed himself in at a police station in Hull.
Ms Irons’s mother spoke movingly in court about the devastating loss of her daughter. “I have no words to say how broken I am to have lost her in such a horrific way,” she said. She described Stephanie as compassionate and caring, adding that she had a gift for lifting others. “She lit up the room and could make even the saddest person smile,” she said.
Detective Inspector Stuart Barson of Nottinghamshire Police praised the family’s strength and read a statement on their behalf, saying the pain caused by the killing would never leave them and that their lives had been changed forever.
In a related development, police have charged Mary Onolunosen, 40, with assisting an offender. She is due to appear at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on 6 March.
