A man who murdered his pregnant girlfriend while on license has been jailed for life with a minimum of 42 years following a previous murder conviction.
Alana Odysseos, 32, who grew up in Suffolk, was about eight weeks pregnant when she died after being stabbed 19 times with a kitchen knife outside her flat in Walthamstow, east London, on July 22, 2024.
Shaine March, 47, of Surrey Docks, south-east London, initially admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and denied murder, but pleaded guilty midway through the trial.
Sentencing March at the Old Bailey earlier, Judge Murray said he may never be released “given his age” and the minimum sentence.
“I’m convinced you intended to kill her,” Judge Murray told March, who appeared via video link from HMP Belmarsh and refused to attend the sentencing hearing in person.
Alana Odysseo, a 32-year-old mother of two, died after being stabbed 19 times [Family Handout/PA]
The court heard Ms Odyssey’s relationship with March lasted for four months before she was killed, during which neighbors heard constant arguments but without any obvious signs of violence.
The London probation service arranged a safeguarding check but no further action was taken when March told them the relationship between him and Ms Odyssey had ended amicably.
March was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in July 2000 after stabbing 17-year-old Andre Drummond in the neck when he was 21, killing him.
He was released in early 2013, jailed later that year for assaulting his then-pregnant girlfriend, and was released again in February 2018.
Ms Odyssey’s sister Jasmine Yates told the court she noticed her sister’s mental health had become “unstable” and tried to encourage her to leave when March asked her to delete all male contacts from her phone.
Ms Yates added that while March promised Ms Odyssey he would go to therapy and change, he also left a voicemail for her sister telling her to have an abortion.
The court heard Ms Odyssey revealed to a friend that she was frightened after March broke a piece of glass and hit her in the face.
In a victim impact statement, Ms Yates said she told her sister: “If he could glass you, he could kill you. Those words and what happened afterwards have haunted me.”
Ms Odyssey’s mother, Karen Cronin, told the court: ‘I used to love going to church and singing in the choir but I was [March] I didn’t feel like a Christian, so I stopped going to church.
“I want him to die in prison and not do the same thing to anyone else.”
During the trial, the court was played CCTV footage showing March attacking Ms Odyssey’s apartment and throwing away evidence, including a mobile phone and clothes, before he left her apartment.
Police recovered Madge’s mobile phone from the sewers and discovered a voice note he had recorded just after 03:00 BST, which read: “Mum, I just killed a woman and I’m going back to jail.”
CCTV and police body camera footage from his arrest in March showed he repeatedly admitted to killing and stabbing Ms Odyssey.
He also called himself a “scumbag” who should be jailed.
While being detained at Barking police station in London, March said: “I stabbed her several times with a long kitchen knife.
“I think the final stab wound was to the back of her shoulder blade and may have pierced her heart.”
Forensic pathologist Dr Matt Sikka told the court a post-mortem analysis showed Ms Odyssey’s heart had been stabbed from behind.
He added that the attack was so “severe” that five of the 19 stab wounds she suffered would have been fatal in themselves.
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