'Double jeopardy' killer is jailed

Cassandra McDermott was killed by Mario Celaire in 2001

A violent footballer has been given two life sentences after he admitted killing his ex-girlfriend seven years after being cleared of the crime.

Mario Celaire, 31, was told at the Old Bailey he must serve a minimum term of eight years after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Cassandra McDermott.

The former Maidstone United player was given a concurrent life term with at least 23 years for the attempted murder of Kara Hoyte, another former girlfriend, in a hammer attack six years later.

He was cleared in 2002 over the death of Miss McDermott, 19, whom he beat unconscious and left to choke on an undigested Chinese takeaway.

But the verdict was later quashed on appeal under new double jeopardy laws.

The court heard it was the first case under the new rules in which a defendant who has previously been acquitted by a jury has been convicted.

It was the "remarkable" courage of Miss Hoyte, who was left brain-damaged after Celaire attacked her, that helped bring him to justice for both crimes, the court was told.

She gave an account to police and family using "writing, drawing and gestures" despite appalling injuries that left her paralysed and severely mentally disabled.

There was loud applause and a shout of "rot in hell" in court today as Celaire, a convicted rapist with a history of violence against women, was jailed.

Judge Paul Worsley told Celaire, of Sydenham, south east London: "You present a very real and continuing danger to young women with whom you enter into a close relationship."