'Double Jeopardy' Footballer Jailed For Killing

A footballer has been jailed for life for killing his former girlfriend - seven years after he was originally cleared of the crime.

Mario Celaire, 31, who played for Maidstone United, was cleared of killing 19-year-old Cassandra McDermott, in Norbury, south east London in 2001.

He was today sentenced after becoming the first person in Britain to be convicted of a crime for which he had been previously found not guilty, under new double jeopardy laws.

The 31-year-old - who was already a convicted rapist - beat the woman and left her for dead.

She had been attacked in the middle of the night and left unconscious, choking on an undigested Chinese takeaway. Her sisters found her the following day.

A post mortem examination found the 19-year-old had suffered four or five hard blows to the face from a hard object - each of them enough to knock her out.

However, he was found not guilty of the attack at the Old Bailey. He then went on to attack another ex-girlfriend, Kara Hoyte.

Celaire, admitted manslaughter, and has been given a minimum jail term of 23 years for the attempted murder of Kara, and a minimum of eight years for Cassandra's death. Both sentences will run concurrently.

He pleaded guilty last month to both the manslaughter of Miss McDermott and the attempted murder of Miss Hoyte.

Ms Hoyte had been left paralysed and barely able to speak after she was beaten with a hammer in February 2007.

However, through "writing, drawing and gestures" she was able to describe what happened to her and also told police Celaire had confessed to the attack on Miss McDermott.

Prosecution lawyers then applied to reopen the inquiry into Ms McDermott's killing and successfully got the acquittal quashed in the Court of Appeal.

Sentencing him, the judge said Celaire "showed no mercy" to his two victims.

(JM/BMcC)