Read Jason Braham’s full statement to the Old Bailey
The father of a 25-year-old female graduate who was stabbed 66 times by an Oxford graduate in her own home has blamed a prestigious London public school for its failure to treat the killer for his drug problem.
William Jaggs carried out the frenzied attack on Lucy Braham, 25, a talented fashion designer, at her family residence, yards from the entrance to Harrow public school in north-west London where her father taught.
Jaggs, 23, whose father also taught at the school and whose home was near the victim’s, pleaded guilty today to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The Oxford student, who had been forced to stall his English studies at Oriel College after getting into difficulties, was said by police to have started stabbing himself in the chest as officers arrived to find him standing over Miss Braham’s body.
Advertisement
Making an emotional statement at the trial of her daughter’s killer today, Jason Braham, a Harrow art master, said Jaggs had “spat in the face of everyone who had given him his advantages”. But he added that the student had been “badly let down” by Harrow which had not tackled his drug problem when he was a pupil there.
As a result of Jaggs’s long-standing drug problem involving LSD and cocaine he became a paranoid schizophrenic, which eventually led to his brutal attack on Miss Braham on September 14 last year.
Today Jaggs was sent to Broadmoor secure hospital indefinitely after pleading guilty to the “sexually-motivated homicidal attack” on Miss Braham. The judge, Mr Justice Bean, told him on sentencing that he may never be released.
“The school has to be challenged for its failure to act when as the son of a master he continued to live in the community,” Mr Braham told the Old Bailey. Both he and Jaggs’s father were lecturing colleagues at the school, and knew each other well.
Mr Braham contrasted the progress of his daughter and her killer, both of whom had come from privileged backgrounds.
Advertisement
“Lucy and Jaggs had the same advantages in life - good homes, good schools, scholarships, university places. Lucy never took these advantages for granted,” he said.
“She worked hard, looked down on no one, gave her friendship unconditionally and never requested the sort of expensive trappings often associated with affluent teenagers and young people.
“Jaggs spat in the face of everyone who had given him his advantages - his parents, his teachers ... and anyone who placed him in a position of trust. He treated his housemates at school with contempt.
“He was arrogant, dishonest and indecent and was found unsuitable to be in a boarding house. Weak-willed, emotionally immature, morally vacant and criminally inclined, he was ideal prey for the drug-dealer and the pornographer.”
On the day of the killing, Jaggs went to Miss Braham’s home and offered to sell her a kitten for £50. However, at about 9.15pm, a neighbour heard voices from inside and, 15 minutes later, she heard cries of distress, Aftab Jafferjee, for the prosecution, said.
Advertisement
The voices continued, with the woman’s becoming hysterical. The neighbour looked into the Brahams’ kitchen from her terrace and saw a pair of jeans and sandals. She then heard the female voice say: “But I am in such pain...”
After her husband arrived, they looked again and saw a pool of blood on the floor and saw Jaggs standing naked with blood on his body. They called the police who broke in to find Jaggs standing over Miss Braham’s lifeless body. “He was covered in blood and armed with a kitchen knife,” said Mr Jafferjee. “He began to stab himself in the stomach, chest and legs.”
Jaggs collapsed near the dead woman’s naked body. Nearby, police found a saw, the knife and a pair of garden secateurs.
In total Miss Braham, who the prosecution said was “in the prime of her life and her beauty of character was matched by her physical attraction,” was stabbed 12 times in the chest, 33 times in the back, five times in her legs and 16 times on her arms. She suffered stab wounds to her lungs, liver and kidneys.
Sentencing Jaggs, Mr Justice Bean told him: “You should realise that it may never be safe to release you.”
Advertisement
He said doctors had described him as dangerous and a grave and immediate risk to others. “The facts you gave to them show a chilling insight into a sick mind,” said the judge.
He had killed Miss Braham in a “horrifying” attack, the judge added. “You followed this butchery with a serious attempt on your own life.”
Miss Braham had been “entirely innocent and blameless - a young woman who had had done you no harm”.
He added: “I am satisfied there was no relationship, sexual or even romantic, between you and her. Her only crime was that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Her parents had gone out for the evening and returned, the judge said, “to find their daughter hacked to death”.