Tagged burglar guilty of murder

Murder rips family apart

A burglar beat a mother-of-two to death in a drunken rage two months after being released from a detention centre with an electronic tag.

Lloyd Edwards, 19, was convicted of murdering Laila Rezk, 51, who was found by her children at her home in Kingston Vale, south-west London, in 2006.

Edwards was issued with a tag when he was released early from an 18-month Detention and Training Order.

Edwards, of south-west London, admitted manslaughter but had denied murder.

The court heard that he had been drinking all day in the lead up to the murder on 29 November.

Sustained attack

He told police he decided to get some money by committing a burglary, after his mother dropped him off near his father's house.

Mrs Rezk was preparing a family dinner when Edwards entered the house and carried out a violent and sustained attack.

Her injuries suggested she had been punched a number of times and her head smashed against a wall.

She was still breathing when daughter Dina, then 22, and son Tamer, then 20, walked in through the open doorway.

Laila Rezk died the day after the attack in her London home

Their mother was lying on the hallway floor with terrible head injuries.

Prosecutor Richard Whittam said the young woman "could not recognise her mother's face" because of the injuries, which were so severe that paramedics thought a weapon must have been used.

The injury that killed Mrs Rezk was likely to be the "hyper-extension" of her neck as her head was forced back by a blow, causing damage to her brain stem.

Edwards, from Roehampton, was released two months early from a Young Offenders' Institution on 29 September 2006.

Risk assessment

He had been given an 18-month Detention and Training Order for burglary.

He was released after seven months and fitted with an electronic tag.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "Those given a Detention and Training Order of 18 months or more may be eligible for release one or two months early, subject to behaviour whilst in prison and passing a risk assessment."

Edwards will be sentenced on Thursday.