Jilted ex-boyfriend guilty of stabbing his heavily pregnant ex-girlfriend to death in jealous rage

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A jilted ex-boyfriend is facing life behind bars after being found guilty of killing his pregnant former lover and their unborn son.

Aaron McKenzie, 26, crept into Kelly Mary Fauvrelle’s bedroom in Thornton Heath, south London in the early hours of June 29 last year and stabbed her 21 times after he had found an online receipt for a gift she had bought her new partner.

The mother-to-be, 26, died at the scene and her son Riley was delivered via emergency C-section at the scene – seven weeks before the due date.

The newborn, whose father was McKenzie, died after four days on a ventilator in hospital.

After the attack McKenzie took a driving lesson and pretended to the family he was devastated by Ms Fauvrelle’s death. 

Ms Fauvrelle’s family, who had been sleeping in the house during the attack, wept at the Old Bailey as the jury foreman returned guilty verdicts following just two hours of deliberation.

Her mother, sister, and brothers endured hearing details of her terrible final moments and told the court how they tried everything to save her.

Jurors were told McKenzie had used his intimate knowledge of the house to sneak in through her patio door which she kept ajar in the evening.

CCTV captured him stalking through the darkened streets before he vanished inside the house.

Re-emerging 11 minutes and 20 seconds later he bolted along the same street off into the distance.

At trial McKenzie invented a killer called ‘Mike’ in an effort to beat the charge after initially confessing to police.

McKenzie told the court he had even extracted a confession out of him.

Duncan Penny prosecuting, told the jury this was incredulous.

Mr Penny said: ‘The murderer is about to disappear to stage left to go off and do what is done. Then we see the same man running back down the road. All of this happens in the space of 11 minutes and 20 seconds.

‘This man ‘Mike’ who the defendant said ultimately had been to the house, accessed the bedroom in the exact same way as this defendant used to and committed the killing.

‘Well this Mike must have had a knife, a back pack (and) a gun which was not in fact used in this killing.’

McKenzie said Ms Faurelle was in debt to ‘Mike’ and he killed her in revenge.

But jurors rejected this account and the phony confession McKenzie claimed to have obtained.

‘A real commonplace amongst murderers (is) that they go and tell someone else that they have committed murder,’ continued Mr Penny.

‘In the early hours of the morning of Saturday 29 June 2019 within a family home in Thornton Heath in South London, Kelly Fauvrelle, a heavily pregnant young woman lay in her bed in the middle of the night.

‘In her womb, she was carrying a little boy, who was later to be named Riley during his very short life. She was 33 weeks pregnant.

‘But when she had gone to bed on the night of Friday 28 June 2019, she had retired to her bedroom whilst all around her, under the same roof, other members of her family slept in the various other bedrooms of the house.

‘Kelly’s bedroom was on the ground floor at the rear of the family house at Raymead Avenue, Thornton Heath.

‘At around 3.15 am that morning, however, an intruder broke into her bedroom through the rear patio doors which formed part of the back wall of her room onto the back garden.

‘That intruder proceeded to launch a vicious and a cowardly attack upon her, inflicting a total of 21 stab wounds with a knife.

‘In the process the intruder murdered not only Kelly Fauvrelle, but through his attack upon Kelly he killed Riley, the unborn child she was carrying. That intruder was this defendant, Aaron McKenzie.

‘As well as being their killer, the intruder was, in fact, both the former partner of Miss Fauvrelle and the father of Riley, the unborn child.

‘The Crown’s case is that this was a vicious and a deliberate killing – perhaps you will conclude in due course the cowardly response of a man desperately jealous about the fact that the mother of his child yet to be born had moved on and now wanted very little to do with him.

‘Whilst the motivation of this defendant may remain unclear at the conclusion of this trial, what he did that night and what he intended in that attack most certainly does not.’

Ms Fauvrelle, 26, was in a relationship with McKenzie but left him in February last year, the Old Bailey heard.

McKenzie, of south London, denied murder, manslaughter and possession of an offensive weapon.

Claire Mays, from the CPS, said: ‘This was a vicious and cowardly attack on a heavily pregnant woman, which was borne out of jealousy. Aaron McKenzie murdered his ex-girlfriend and in turn also killed their child Riley.

‘Just hours after carrying out the attack, McKenzie went for a driving lesson as if nothing had happened.

‘The prosecution evidence included a confession McKenzie had made to police officers taking responsibility for the killings before he decided to change his story and blame his actions on his learning difficulties and depression.

‘By choosing to take this tragic case to trial McKenzie took the family of his victim through the heartbreak and ordeal of listening to all of his lies and the damning evidence against someone who had once been a part of their family.’

He was convicted of murder and will be sentenced on 17 July.