The mother of a murdered young woman has spoken of her anguish and disbelief after learning that her daughter's killer is set to be granted supervised leave from a secure hospital, less than five months after he was sentenced.
A Violent Killing and a Hospital Order
Gogoa Lois Tape, a 28-year-old cannabis addict, was handed an indefinite hospital order in 2024 after he violently strangled his 25-year-old girlfriend, Kennedi Westcarr-Sabaroche, to death in April of that year. Tape, who was the father of Kennedi's two-year-old daughter, then drove around for two hours with her lifeless body in his car, even stopping to buy cigarettes.
Prosecutors had initially brought a murder charge, but this was dropped when Tape pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility, with his defence blaming his actions on mental health problems. Sentencing him at Inner London Crown Court, Judge Freya Newbery told Tape his stay in hospital would be "measured in years, and possibly life-long," acknowledging he was in the grip of a major psychotic illness.
Family's Trauma and a 'Broken' System
Now, NHS chiefs have informed Kennedi's family that the clinical team responsible for Tape at the John Howard Centre in Hackney, East London, will be applying for him to have escorted leave. For Kennedi's mother, Linda Westcarr, this development has compounded the family's grief.
"As a bereaved mother, I speak with anguish and disbelief that this man could be released only months after being sentenced under an indefinite hospital order," she said. "We are trapped in a process that feels relentless and never‑ending, and now we are being forced to fight a system that seems completely broken."
Mrs Westcarr expressed deep concern that Tape could be allowed back into the community less than 20 months after killing her daughter. She argued that a prison sentence would have provided clarity, whereas the hospital order has left the family "in limbo," unable to grieve or rebuild their lives.
Calls for Urgent Reform
Kennedi's uncle, Leon Westcarr, said he was "utterly astounded" that Tape could be assessed as safe for community leave so soon after being found profoundly unstable. "How can the community have any confidence in this assessment?" he questioned.
The case has highlighted what campaigners describe as a systemic issue. Julian Hendy, from the charity HundredFamilies which monitors violence by the mentally ill, noted that it is "not uncommon for clinicians to apply for leave for mentally ill killers within months of conviction." He pointed out that the law allows such offenders to apply for release within six months, stating: "This cannot be right. The system is in urgent need of reform."
The family feels a life sentence has been imposed on them instead, one of "unending grief, loss, and trauma," while Tape has escaped a custodial life term.
