Killer Stabbed Fellow Hostel Resident To Death

A murderer is starting a life sentence after he repeatedly stabbed another resident at their supported living hostel in south London.

Steven Thwaites, 62, of Marmora Road, East Dulwich, must serve a minimum of twenty years for killing 60 year-old Vincent Douglas.

Blackfriars Crown Court heard Thwaites picked up a kitchen knife in the early hours of December 1, last year and stabbed the victim in the abdomen, liver, face and hands.

Police were called at 2.32am following reports of a male suffering from stab injuries.

Officers attended and discovered Vincent in the garden of the address.

They immediately began to administer first aid prior to the arrival of colleagues from the London Ambulance Service.

Despite subsequent efforts from paramedics, Vincent was pronounced dead at the scene and a crime scene was established.

As officers spoke to residents at the scene, Thwaites claimed Vincent had inflicted the wounds himself.

However, he gave differing accounts of where he had seen him, first claiming he had been on the ground floor but later stating Vincent had been on the top floor.

Thwaites then claimed he had taken the knife Vincent allegedly used to inflict his injuries and washed it before placing it in a drawer in his kitchen.

CCTV enquiries subsequently showed Vincent going downstairs from his room with a head injury; he was then captured with a stab wound to his abdomen visible before he went outside the building, pursued by Thwaites who was armed with a knife.

Thwaites required hospital treatment for laceration injuries to his hands that he claimed were as a result of taking the knife from Vincent.

He was arrested on suspicion of murder upon discharge from hospital.

During interviews he again gave differing accounts to police of what had happened.

He was later charged with murder.

Detective Inspector Will Reynolds, of the Homicide and Major Crime Command, said: "This was a very sad and unnecessary death.

“Both men were vulnerable adults, living in supported accommodation and without any history of conflict.

"Vincent Douglas posed no threat at all to Thwaites, as evidenced by the CCTV, played to the court.

“For reasons, still not understood today, Thwaites stabbed Vincent Douglas a number of times with a knife taken from the kitchen.

"On his arrest he gave a number of confused and conflicting accounts for how Vincent received his injuries and when interviewed tried unsuccessfully to suggest that Vincent stabbed himself whilst trying to take his own life.

“Vincent had no history whatsoever of self-harm and the jury rightly convicted Thwaites of murder.

"Vincent's family are deeply upset by his death and are still coming to terms with how he could have been taken from them in this way, so unexpectedly.

“I hope this verdict goes some small way to helping them come to terms with their loss."