A man has been jailed for at least 20 years for murdering a transgender woman during a drug and alcohol binge at a hotel near Heathrow Airport. Jesse McDonald, 25, was found guilty of killing Naomi Hersi, 36, at the Old Bailey in October.
The court heard that McDonald contacted Hersi through the dating website Fabswingers.com. After days together, he drugged and stabbed her with a knife and a broken bottle in his hotel room in Hounslow. He then hid the body, partly covered by a rug, and enlisted the help of his 18-year-old girlfriend, Natalia Darkowska, to clean up.
McDonald denied murder, claiming he acted in self-defence and had been drugged, raped and held in a “death grip” by the victim. However, Judge Mark Dennis QC rejected these claims, saying McDonald had a “complete disregard for anyone but himself”. The judge described the attack as a “dreadful assault” on someone who was “in no position to respond”.
In a victim impact statement, Hersi’s family described her as a sweet, trusting and carefree person. Her father, Mohamed Duale, called the murder the “ultimate injustice”, adding: “Our lives will never be the same. The grief has swallowed us up.”
McDonald, who dropped out of the London School of Economics, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years. Darkowska was also convicted of perverting the course of justice. The couple wept as the verdicts were read.
