Daily Mail
August 8, 2015
An ‘angry and obsessive’ thug is facing life in jail for shoving his girlfriend to her death through a 14th floor window.
Dora Matthews, 43, was heard screaming ‘let me go’ moments before she plummeted to the pavement from the living room window of the flat in Wood Green, north London.
Long-term partner David Douglas, 44, was caught on CCTV a few minutes later fleeing the building barefoot and clutching a can of lager.
The couple had a turbulent relationship and had been arguing in the early hours of the morning shortly before Ms Matthews was killed, a court heard.
Douglas denied murder but was found guilty by a jury after nearly ten hours of deliberation. He now faces a lengthy jail sentence or even life in prison.
Prosecutor Mark Dennis QC said the victim was heard screaming before she dropped from a ‘comparatively small’ window in the living room of Douglas’ 14th floor flat.
‘The only person who could have forced her out of that window, whether by physical manhandling or pushing her or by putting her into a state of such extreme fear of lethal violence that she in effect backed out of the window was this defendant,’ he said.
‘The prosecution allege that this was no accident, nor was it an act of suicide, rather it was an unlawful killing at the hands of an angry and obsessive man who could not control his violent temper following a prolonged and heated argument.
The court heard that Ms Matthews had been in a ‘volatile’ five-year relationship with Douglas, who she had a restraining order against, before the fatal night in December 2013.
‘She had spent much of that night with her boyfriend, the defendant, who lived in a flat on the 14th floor, said Mr Dennis.