A 50-year-old man has been found guilty of murdering his 80-year-old partner at her west London flat.
Steven Clark, of Bravington Road in Kilburn, was found guilty of murdering Ursula Uhlemann at her home in Queens Park in March by a jury at Southwark Crown Court. The court heard that just after 3am on March 20 a London Ambulance Service crew attended Ms Uhlemann's flat – inside a retirement housing complex – following a 999 call by Clark.
They found Ms Uhlemann unresponsive on the floor of her living room. Despite the efforts of paramedics to resuscitate her, she was pronounced dead at 4.11am.
Investigators were alerted of the death by paramedics and attended the flat. They noted that Ms Uhlemann had suffered numerous injuries.
Clark was present at the scene when the police arrived. He told them he had been staying at Ms Uhlemann's flat that night, and had found her unconscious.
Investigators noted inconsistencies in Clark's account, and, as a result, he was arrested and charged with murder two days later.
Clark claimed that, after arriving at his partner's flat on March 18, he had left and returned on several occasions.
However, after making CCTV enquiries, investigators established that he had never left the flat at any point in the two days preceding her death.
Officers were able to establish that Clark had been abusive towards the victim on previous occasions.
A postmortem later determined that Ms Uhlemann had died from neck compression.
DCI Wayne Jolley, who led the investigation, said: "Ms Uhlemann’s life was taken in appalling circumstances. In light of Clark’s conviction, our thoughts are with those that knew her.
"Clark had consistently lied about his role in Ms Uhlemann's murder, denying any involvement whatsoever. I would like to thank the numerous witnesses who assisted investigators in building a picture of the events leading up to the killing."
Clark will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Friday.
