The mother of a 15-year-old girl who was murdered by an ex-boyfriend today won a High Court battle for a full inquest into her daughter’s death.
Arsema Dawit was stabbed 32 times in the lift of her block of flats in Waterloo by Thomas Nugusse. More than a month before, Arsema, her mother and a cousin had gone to Kennington police station to report that he had assaulted her and threatened to kill her.
Today Mr Justice Silber said steps could have been taken by the police which might well have avoided the risk posed to Arsema by Nugusse, 21, and that this should be investigated further at a full inquest. Nugusse could not be tried for the murder in June 2008 because he suffered brain damage in a suicide attempt in prison. On May 20, 2009 an Old Bailey jury found that he had “committed the acts”.
An Independent Police Complaints Commission report in 2010 found that a station receptionist at Kennington failed to relay the information to a senior officer or take contact details for the cousin — but concluded that no one at the Met was to blame for the death.
Arsema’s mother Tsehaynesh Medihani was not satisfied with the criminal proceedings or the IPCC report and asked Dr Fiona Wilcox, then coroner for inner south London, to hold a full inquest. She took her case to the High Court after Dr Wilcox refused.
