Community worker stabbed 86 times in 'fit of unmodulated rage', court hears

Ian Levy stands accused of murdering his partner Elize Stevens, who worked as a welfare officer at the S&P Sephardi Community

An Old Bailey jury has heard how an unemployed jeweller stabbed his Jewish girlfriend 86 times in a fit of rage at her Hendon apartment in March.

Ian Levy, 55, killed mother-of-three Elize Stevens, a welfare officer at the S&P Sephardi Community, shortly after being released from a psychiatric hospital.

Police found the accused naked and covered in blood next to Stevens’ body at her Great North Way flat at 10.30am. A blood-stained kitchen knife was lying next to her body, as was a hammer, which appears to have been unused in the attack.

A witness told how he heard Stevens begging Levy to stop, while officers said that in the immediate aftermath of the killing, Levy complained to them that he had hurt his hands in the attack, which was described as “a fit of unmodulated rage”.

Levy’s lawyers do not deny that he killed her but argue that it was manslaughter owing to his “diminished responsibility” as a result of a personality disorder and depression. Prosecutors however say the killing was “not simply reducible to the effects of a depressive disorder”. Two expert psychiatrists have disagreed.

The court heard how Stevens had raised her three children in Israel before coming to the UK in 2011 to escape a violent relationship.

She reportedly met Levy at her father’s shiva in 2018. Her grown up children knew very few details about her relationship with Levy, who Stevens appears to have been supporting.

Police officers said after his arrest, Levy said “it’s the hospital’s fault, they let me out when they knew I was depressed,” before asking: “Did you save her?”

The trial continues, and is set to last three weeks.