Man jailed for carpet body murder

Miss Sinnott was treated like a sex object, the court was told

A man has been jailed for life for strangling his girlfriend and dumping her body in a field draped in a carpet.

Jermaine Flavius, 23, from Islington, north London, admitted murdering Kelly Sinnott just as his trial at the Old Bailey was about to begin last Friday.

The 24-year-old had been beaten with wood and strangled with a flex. She was found in a field in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, in October 2004.

Flavius has been ordered to serve a minimum of 15 years.

She was brutally beaten with weapons of some kind, causing terrible injuries Judge David Paget

Miss Sinnott, of Bethnal Green, east London, had a tattoo on her back declaring "Property of Flavius".

Flavius indulged in relationships with other women while treating Miss Sinnott like a sex object and punchbag, the court was told.

She was desperate to have his child, but he refused, despite having fathered three other children.

Richard Ferguson QC, defending, said Miss Sinnott was jealous of his relationship with another woman, with whom he had a child.

Flavius claimed he had lost control after Miss Sinnott allegedly threatened to harm the child with a knife.

The bones in her face had been smashed following a beating with a broom handle and a wooden tool.

Judge David Paget told Flavius: "She was brutally beaten with weapons of some kind, causing terrible injuries. Then you strangled her with a ligature."

Det Ch Insp Terry Geraghty, from the Metropolitan Police, said: "Kelly Sinnott was a young woman who formed a relationship and became besotted with Jermaine Flavius.

"Tragically, this infatuation resulted in her violent death."