In April 2024, 25-year-old Kennedi Westcarr-Sabaroche was fatally attacked by her boyfriend, Gogoa Tape, in what her family describe as a calculated and sustained assault involving knives, blunt force trauma, and strangulation lasting approximately eight minutes. The attack occurred in east London, leaving behind Kennedi’s young daughter, who had not yet reached her second birthday.

Kennedi’s mother, Linda Westcarr, has voiced deep frustration and sorrow over the handling of the case by the criminal justice system. Despite evidence of coercive and controlling behavior leading up to the killing, Tape, 29, was convicted of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility—based on psychiatric evaluations conducted months after the incident that diagnosed him with schizophrenia. Prosecutors accepted this diagnosis without consulting the victim’s family.

Rather than receiving a prison sentence, Tape was placed under a restricted hospital order with no fixed or minimum term. This decision has caused additional distress for the family, particularly following reports that clinicians are now considering granting him escorted leave from the facility where he is currently held, which is located just a few miles from Linda Westcarr’s home.

The family questions the fairness and transparency of the legal process. “The fate of the man who killed my daughter was decided without a jury, behind closed doors, and with no transparency whatsoever,” Linda Westcarr said. She contrasts two competing narratives: one that portrays Tape as a drug-abusing man whose increasingly controlling behavior led to a violent premeditated attack, and the other accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which frames the killing as a consequence of psychosis caused by undiagnosed mental illness. She argues that if a jury had heard the first narrative, a murder conviction with a lengthy minimum sentence might have been the outcome.

The family, supported by Refuge chair Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, is scheduled to meet Justice Secretary David Lammy to request an independent inquiry into the case and to call for urgent reform regarding how hospital orders without minimum terms are applied. Linda Westcarr emphasizes the need for proportionality between treatment and public protection, stating: “If somebody who killed a young mother in these circumstances doesn’t meet the threshold for long-term detention, who does?”

Kennedi had met Tape—known to friends as Lois—when she was 16 and he was 18. Though initially cautious, Linda had accepted their relationship. Tape moved into the family home during the COVID-19 lockdown, and Kennedi became pregnant at 22. According to Linda, red flags appeared as Tape increasingly monitored Kennedi’s movements and isolated her from friends. After their daughter’s birth, his possessiveness worsened, including demands for a DNA test.

By early 2024, the couple’s relationship had ended, and Tape was asked to move back to his family’s home in Hackney. Kennedi had shared her fears over a threatening letter Tape had sent, which included references to killing both her and her mother. Tape denied intent, and the family was unaware of the full extent of the threats until after Kennedi’s death.

On the night of the killing, Tape asked Kennedi to drive him to an alleged plumbing job—a job that did not exist. Surveillance footage later showed him leaving her car near a grassy area in east London and returning before the attack. Linda describes the assault as an “extreme escalation of violence from a man who wanted to kill the woman he claimed to love.”

The loss continues to weigh heavily on the family, especially as Linda now raises Kennedi’s young daughter. “The grief is incredibly difficult and doesn’t get any easier,” she said, highlighting the painful milestones her granddaughter will face without her mother’s presence.