Theodore Johnson - how is this possible?

[Whitney168]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-42540995

So, first partner was 'manslaughter', I can see that. How did he get away with manslaughter on the second partner - presumably his previous conviction wasn't allowed to be taken in to account?

At least the current partner has been a murder charge, let's hope he now goes away for life.

We try people based on the evidence for the current charge only. Previous convictions are cannot be revealed to the jury unless the defendant falsely claims previous good character. The fact that someone has committed a previous crime does not mean they are guilty of the current charge but introducing evidence of previous convictions may prejudice the jury against them.

If this case was decided by a jury they were clearly persuaded that the evidence of diminished responsibility was good enough to convict of manslaughter rather than murder. If the prosecution decided to accept his plea of guilty to manslaughter rather than pursuing a murder conviction it was because they did not think they would be able to get a murder conviction on the evidence available.

The first conviction would have affected the sentence for the second offence. And, of course, the fact he has admitted to murder in the latest case does not necessarily mean that either of the previous offences was murder. However, it does appear that there was a failure to properly assess the risks associated with releasing him from the psychiatric unit where he was held following the second conviction.