A JURY has found a 22-year-old man guilty of murdering Basingstoke teenager Jolene Colpus.

Kieron Sebastian Simei stabbed the 19-year-old to death at the communal doorway to her flat in Winterthur Way on Saturday, June 3, last year.

He plunged a 20cm carving knife into her abdomen, severing a major vein and hitting her spine. He then fled the scene, discarding the murder weapon and throwing away his jacket in panic.

Miss Colpus' body lay undiscovered in the bathroom of her flat for nine days.

Winchester Crown Court heard that the young woman's violent death at the hands of Simei, of New Cross Gate, London, was set against the murky world of drug dealing in Basingstoke, and that Simei was arrested on drugs charges only three days after murdering Miss Colpus and remanded in custody by magistrates.

Throughout the trial, Simei denied murder and entered a guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter. However, the option of returning a verdict of guilty of manslaughter was rejected by the jury of eight women and four men.

The court heard from Home Office pathologist Dr Hugh White that Miss Colpus would have "bled heavily after the stab wound, then felt unwell, then collapsed and become unconscious, and subsequently she would have died".

Simei, who showed no emotion when the verdict was read out, will be sentenced by Mr Justice Jack at Winchester Crown Court on Monday.

  • See Monday's Gazette for more on this story.