University dropout convicted of murdering transgender woman after sex and drugs binge

A university dropout has been found guilty of the "cold and calculating" murder of a transgender woman after a sex and drugs binge.

Jesse McDonald, 25, drugged and then stabbed Naomi Hersi to death with a knife and a broken bottle at a hotel near Heathrow Airport where he was living.

He had met the 36-year-old through dating website FabSwingers.com, the Old Bailey heard.






McDonald then spun a web of lies as he recruited his 18-year-old girlfriend, Natalia Darkowska, to help clean up, jurors were told.

Prosecutor Mark Heywood QC told the court how McDonald planned to dispose the body, but Ms Hersi was found half-naked and partly covered by a rug on the floor of the bathroom.

Image:Naomi Hersi was stabbed to death at a hotel near Heathrow

McDonald accepted causing the fatal injuries but denied murder - claiming he acted in self-defence.

He and Darkowska, from Trowbridge in Wiltshire, both denied perverting the course of justice.

After deliberating for 17 hours, the jury found them guilty of the charges.

McDonald broke down in tears when the verdict was delivered, telling his girlfriend: "I'm sorry".

Image:Jesse McDonald was found guilty of murder

The court heard that Ms Hersi, whose legal name was Hersi Mohamed, was an openly transgender woman.

McDonald, from West Sussex, is a former grade A student and played tennis at county level before getting into drug-dealing and selling Bitcoins after dropping out of the London School of Economics (LSE).

On 12 March, he contacted Ms Hersi via his account on FabSwingers.com behind his girlfriend's back, and the pair had a seven-minute phone conversation where he admitted to looking for a sexual encounter.

Image:CCTV showed Jesse McDonald and Naomi Hersi at a Tesco store

He later drove his BMW to the victim's home in Mill Hill, northwest London, where he stayed for three days before they both went back to the small hotel room in Hounslow.

McDonald is said to have ignored his girlfriend's attempts to get in touch with him but on 16 March sent her a message which said: "Baby I have been a f****** idiot".


Another read: "I love u so much. Not cheated x. Got addicted to a nasty drug I had never met before."

Image:Natalia Darkowska was found guilty of perverting the course of justice

He then told her he had "got a big drug dealer" lying across his floor, adding "won't wake up... massive black guy".

Ms Hersi was dead by the time Darkowska arrived, but she helped clean up the blood that was all over the room rather than phoning the police.

McDonald then phoned his mother and claimed he had been chained up for days - drugged with GHB and repeatedly raped.

Image:CCTV of McDonald and Darkowska checked into another hotel after the killing

He alleged that he had stabbed Ms Hersi up to 40 times in belief she was going to smother him with a pillow.

His mother phoned the police after the conversation.

Jurors heard how McDonald offered his landlord a designer watch if he cleared up his room before confessing he had killed someone.

During his police interview, he continued to claim he had been bound and raped, but later said he had contacted Ms Hersi "because I'm a complete idiot".

He said: "Clearly I was looking for something, I wanted to get out. I don't know, it is not uncommon for me to have done something like this in the past. I'm disappointed in myself.

Image:McDonald and Darkowska (back to camera, wearing hat) being arrested

"At the time I felt open-minded, liberal-minded, whatever you want to call it."

Following his conviction, Detective Inspector Tom Dahri said: "From day one of this murder, McDonald has spun lie after lie and tarnished the name of the victim by calling her some of the vilest names in front of her family.

"This was all just smoke and mirrors to make himself look like a victim, when in fact he is a cold and calculated killer who dragged his girlfriend in to help him clear up his mess."

McDonald was remanded into custody to be sentenced next Friday.

Darkowska, who was granted continued bail, will be sentenced separately on 16 November.

Ex-middle school principal offered probation for Craigslist child sex case

Syracuse, NY -- A former middle school principal is mulling a plea offer that would put him on probation for 10 years for sexually abusing a child he met on Craigslist, a prosecutor said today.

Mark Trabucco, 40, of Clay, who worked as principal at a Boonville middle school, was arrested in April 2017 after the victim reported the sex acts to a family member, according to Onondaga County sheriff's deputies.





The principal met the victim in a strip mall off Oswego Road, sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Jon Seeber has said. They engaged in multiple sexual acts, he said.



Trabucco has been in plea negotiations for at least three months now.His lawyer, William Sullivan, has apparently been trying to get a better plea deal than 10 years' probation, with a sex offender registration.

But prosecutor Misha Coulson said today that was her final offer. Trabucco would be required to plead guilty to felony criminal sex act. It's the lowest form of felony, punishable by up to 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison, though no incarceration is required.

Coulson pushed for Trabucco to accept or reject the offer today. Trabucco has indicated a willingness to plead guilty, to this point bypassing a grand jury.

But County Court Judge Matthew Doran gave Trabucco another week to decide. Trabucco remains free on bail.

Trabucco is no longer listed as an employee of the Adirondack Central Schools.

'I want you in all ways... I can't stop it': Grandfather's sickening messages to granddaughter he abused since she was 13

A woman who was abused by her own grandfather from the age of 13 gave away her own right to lifelong anonymity and revealed the messages he sent to her. 22-year-old Jade, who is a mother to two children, gave a harrowing account of how her grandad Joseph Edwards, 69, would take her away on secret afternoon trips and molest her.

The abuse started when she was 13 and began with small touches on her backside. She narrated how they would go to the seaside together. Edwards, who denied all allegations, has been jailed for 15 months by Liverpool Crown Court after being found guilty of six offences of sexual activity with a child.

Jade told the Liverpool Echo: "I thought it was weird when he started to touch my bum, he never did that with any of the other kids. We had a really special bond, though, and he listened to me when a lot of my other family members wouldn't."

(Facebook)

Jade said: "When I was 15, he started kissing me, I can still remember feeling his tongue, it was awful. He then started trying to put his hand between my legs and touching me there."

Edwards would carry out his abuse mostly in his car as he took Jade out on day trips to Southport, Merseyside. "We'd always go up to Southport in his car and he'd get me a can of Dr Pepper and a pizza. Our trips were always a secret, I could never tell my nan or any other family members where I was going, and it was always in Southport and in his car where most of the abuse took place."

Jade had a difficult relationship with her family growing up and she found it very confusing because her grandad was the "only one who looked out for me."

"I knew the difference between right and wrong as I got older, but he was the only one who was there for me. It was hard to turn my back on him. I always told myself that the latest abuse would be the last time."

(Facebook)

The abuse did not seem to end and Edwards would be very jealous of her relationships and stopped her from seeing her friends. "He'd talk about moving to Wales with me. He got me a tattoo for my 16th birthday, and I made him get my nan's name as a tattoo, but he said to me 'I wish it was your name instead'."

Struggling to cope with her conflicting feelings, Jade messaged her grandad in 2012 asking him why he acted the way he did towards her.

In a series of messages, Edwards said: "I love you so much, you make my heart skip a beat. You just do it for me okay. I want you in all ways is that okay? I just want to be happy with you and no one else. I am sorry I can't stop it, I love you so much. I can't get you out of my head, Jade sorry for loving you so much, you're just so good looking okay."

After her partner urged her to report the abuse to the police, she said some family members refused to believe her even after she showed them the incriminating messages.

During the trial, Jade's family stuck by her grandad but she says she has received some comfort after he was found guilty by a jury.

(Facebook)

She said: "It feels really good that there is people that believe me, and that the jury believed me.

"When he got sent down, I felt guilty. I couldn't help but think about how he would feel. But what has happened to me has affected me in lots of ways. I've been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and have been referred for counselling to try and get over it — if you ever do get over something like that."

Edwards, of Bootle, Merseyside, repeatedly denied the offences but was jailed on October 9. Judge Neil Flewitt, QC, ordered him to sign on the sex offenders' register for 10 years and he imposed a five-year restraining order to keep away from the victim.