A double killer who murdered his pregnant girlfriend when she refused to abort their unborn baby has been jailed for life.
Shaine March, 47, stabbed and slashed his partner Alana Odysseos with a knife at least 24 times at her home in Walthamstow, east London, before walking off as she lay dying on the pavement.
Ms Odysseos, 32, had just discovered she was expecting a child with March, while neighbours overheard furious rows before the stabbing as March demanded she have an abortion.
March, of Surrey Quays in southeast London, was jailed for life at the age of 21 after fatally stabbing a man in the neck at a McDonald’s restaurant in January 2000.
He was set free on licence in early 2013 but was recalled to jail later that year after an assault on another partner.
He was then set free again in 2018.
At the Old Bailey on Friday, March was sentenced by Mr Justice Murray to life in prison with a minimum term of 42 years.
“In the early hours of July 22, 2024, you stabbed Alana Odysseos to death, killing her when she was pregnant with your child, leaving her then two-year-old daughter an orphan and devastating the lives of her family forever”, said the judge.
“You killed Alana knowing she was pregnant”, he said. “Clearly you intended to kill her and her baby would, at that early stage of pregnancy, have no chance to survive the attack.”
The judge set out that Ms Odysseos had confided in friends and family that March was violent and abusive, but had not left him at the time she was murdered.
“She was afraid of you but she loved you still and she hoped you would change”, he said.
The senior judge rejected a call from prosecutors and Ms Odysseos’ family for a whole life order, but told the court it is unlikely March will ever be set free again.
Mother Karen Cronin said: “Alana, my beautiful kind and loving daughter, left this earth in the most callous and brutal way imaginable.
“The person who has done this to my daughter – who I don’t think deserves the respect of using his name – is evil and a coward. Why did he have to resort to the level of violence he used?
“The anger I feel towards him doesn’t feel Christian so I can no longer go to Church. I will never have forgiveness in my heart.”
“I want him to die in prison. He should never be let out.”
Father Alan Yates said his daughter was a “happy-go-lucky” much-loved mother who was “kind and considerate”, and would stick up for what she believed in.
He said something changed after she met March and she became a “timid vulnerable person who was not our Alana”.
He said: “I hope a sentence is given that means Shaine March will never cause another family the pain and loss we are suffering. It is unimaginable and we will never get over our loss.
“Every day I wonder why he didn’t walk away. Alana was pregnant with his child. This meant nothing to him.”
The court heard statements from her three sisters, including Lorraine Schofield who said March was a “monster” and “evil, disgusting coward”.
She told the court: “All Alana wanted was to be loved. The baby she so desperately wanted to protect that night was taken away.”
Sister Jasmine Yates told March: “You took more than one life that night. You took Alana, you took the baby she was carrying, the child she was excited about.
“I fear if you are ever released you will kill again.”
At the start of the sentencing hearing, March was absent from court after telling prison guards he would refused to leave his cell.
His barrister, Sandip Patel KC, said March was woken by prison guards at 6.30am and told them he would not be travelling to court, remarking: “It’s only sentencing.”
Prosecutor Louise Oakley urged the judge, Mr Justice Murray, to try to set up a videolink to the prison, or order guards to use “reasonable force” to drag him to the hearing.
“It’s an important part of this criminal process”, she said.
“It’s important to the family that he is present during the sentencing hearing, and hears the affect his actions have had.”
The judge delayed the sentencing hearing so that March could be brought to a videolink hearing at HMP Belmarsh.
The trial heard how Ms Odysseos withdrew from friends after she started dating March, as he controlled her behaviour and movements.
She told a friend how March banned her from talking to people, threw away her child’s toys, and once smashed a glass in her face.
Her sister urged her to leave March after she revealed he had accused her of cheating, forced her to delete male contacts from her phone, and hurled verbal abuse at her, the court heard.
But they were still in contact on July 22 last year, when, in the early hours of the morning, Ms Odysseos was fatally stabbed.
“At approximately 3am on July 22, 2024, members of the public who lived in and around Lynmouth Road in Walthamstow began to ring 999”, said Ms Oakley.
“They had found Alana outside her home address. She was wearing her nightie and a dressing gown. She was clutching her right side.
“She was bleeding from multiple stab wounds to her body.
“She was shouting ‘Shaine stabbed me, he stabbed me’, and ‘Shaine stabbed me, he stabbed me, help, help’.”
The court heard Ms March was pointed out Ms Odysseos at the scene, and he “walked away” while efforts were ongoing to save her life.
Ms Oakley told jurors: “By July 2024, she had been in a relationship with the defendant for approximately four months on the date of her death, and had recently discovered she was pregnant.
“She was someone who had experience huge personal loss following the death of two partners who were the fathers of her children.
“She was vulnerable and all she wanted was to be loved. She desperately wanted to create a family environment for her two-year-old daughter.”
Ms Oakley said Ms Odysseos had told friends in the months before she died that there was trouble in her relationship.
“She disclosed to a friend that she was not allowed to talk to people, and that she had to answer the telephone to him at all times, day or night, including video calls to prove where she was, who she was with, and what she was doing.
“That they would also argue constantly.
“In other conversations she also divulged that the defendant had destroyed or thrown out all of her daughter’s toys and that they had argued about the fact she had recently discovered she was pregnant.
“She admitted that she was scared of the defendant and had been assaulted by him.”
Ms Odysseos complained that March “had interfered with and caused distance between her and her loved ones.
“She told her sister that the defendant accused her of cheating on him, that she had had to delete all the telephone number of any male contacts in her phone”, said Ms Oakley.
“On one occasion, Alana showed her sister voice notes on WhatsApp that the Defendant had sent her, they were of Shaine shouting, threatening to get (her daughter) taken away from her, calling Alana all sorts of derogatory names, saying their unborn child was not his and telling her to get an abortion.
“As a result, her sister tried to persuade her to leave him. But Alana said she loved him, even after that short period of time they had been together. He promised Alana he would change.”
The day before the fatal stabbing, Ms Odysseos told her sister in a messaging conversation that March was “acting up”.
Her sister told her: “U deserve so much better”, but Ms Odysseos replied: “Can’t help who u love but he don’t love any of us.”
At around midnight, neighbours overheard a lengthy argument, the court heard, with a male voice shouting “pregnant” and female voice pleading “come back” and “I don’t want to kill my baby”.
March had gone around to her flat to help move some furniture, and an argument broke out over a pair of trainers.
Jurors heard neighbours recorded some of the row, while Ms Odysseos also filmed some of the unfolding incident. But Ms Oakley said March destroyed her mobile phone before the footage could be seized.
The judge took into consideration that March had lived in the community for six years without committing a crime, and he had ultimately pleaded guilty to murder, when deciding not to impose a whole life order.
He also highlighted that March had put forward in mitigation evidence of an anti-social personality disorder and depression.
