Millionaire stabs partner 86 times in 'fit of rage' leaving her with intestines out on bloody apartment floor
A police officer who answered neighbors' complaints of an apparently reclusive millionaire's partner screaming, told jurors that upon reaching the house, the blood-soaked flat looked 'like a movie scene'. The 55-year-old man, Ian Levy, stabbed his 50-year-old partner, Elize Stevens, a total of 86 times during an alleged 'fit of rage.' The incident happened in the man's apartment at Great North Way in Hendon, northwest London, on March 2. The man has admitted to manslaughter, but still denies the murder of Stevens by reason of diminished responsibility.
Daily Mail online reported that jurors were told on August 9 how worried neighbors called the police in Lime Court after they heard Stevens - a mother of four - 'screaming for her life', saying she had been stabbed before things went quiet. PC Gulsum Cengiz, one of the officers who first attended, claimed in a statement that three other residents were standing outside the house in their pajamas and dressing gowns and pointing up to Levy's flat. She, along with other colleagues, repeatedly tried kicking the door down when Levy initially refused to come out.
Just as the group was about to smash the door in with an enforcer, Cengiz said she noticed the door handle move, before Levy ultimately stepped out. "He was covered in blood," she said, adding: "The door wasn't fully open, however from the limited view that I had I could see, a fully naked female lying on her back in a pool of blood. She had so many different sizes of stab wound all over her body and didn't seem to be breathing or conscious."
Stevens' body lay next to a knife with an 8-inch blade and a claw hammer lying just between her legs, jurors heard. The officer also detailed how Stevens' "intestines were out" and how there were "a number of significant cuts" on her stomach, chest, thighs, and arms. PC Craig Vincent, who arrested Levy at the scene on suspicion of Stevens' murder, told jurors: "I saw Mr Levy completely naked and covered in blood from the neck down. Literally, I can only describe it as like a movie scene. It was arms, shoulders, body, legs - all completely red. I could also see some blood coming from the top of his head. It was something I have never seen before."
Prosecutor Jane Bickerstaff QC told jurors that they weren't going to see PC Vincent's body-worn footage 'for obvious reasons', but they were taken through a transcript of some of the exchanges between him and Levy. While the synagogue worker lay dead just a few feet away, Levy managed to moan about how his hand was in pain from a minor cut. "Please do something about my hand," said the attacker, adding: "Please, my hand's killing me." Levy, a jeweler, also blamed it on a hospital, reports Daily Mail. He said: "It's the hospital's fault. They let me out. They knew I was depressed."
As for his partner, he asked about Stevens twice over the course of that morning and after, asking: "Did you save her?" When he was informed in the negative, he went back to complaining about his hand, repeating, "I'm in pain. Oh, my hand. It's killing me." The paramedic, however, told the court that the cut was "pretty superficial."Lev told one of the medics, "They released me two days ago. They shouldn't have discharged me, should they?" Later, the same afternoon, he complained: "I am cold and I want to go home, bloody hospitals."
Levy also went on to say that he had been suffering from depression and was suicidal. He also told the officer amidst all of this how he had broken a pelvic bone in an attempt to take his own life by leaping from the car park at Brent Cross Shopping Centre. "I was damaged from childhood by my parents. That's where it all starts, isn't it?," he said, adding that he felt like "sh*t" all the time and has "been suicidal for years." He also lamented not being able to watch West Ham on TV that afternoon and when told he might have to appear in court as soon as Monday, he commented how it's a bit quick. As of now, Levy denies murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility, but the trial continues.