A teenager who killed his girlfriend while their baby daughter slept beside them was today convicted of murder.
Jurors took just two hours and 15 minutes to find Nigel Diakite guilty of strangling to death young mum N'Taya Elliott-Cleverley. In the aftermath of her killing, he appeared to confess - only to later claim: "If it was me, it was somebody who used me, it wasn't me."
The then 19-year-old killer said he couldn't remember any attack, or making a confession, and blamed his mental health problems. But prosecutors said his "assertion of amnesia" was a "convenience" and accused him of putting on an "act" for jurors.
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Members of Miss Elliott-Cleverley's family sat holding hands in the public gallery as they awaited the verdict this morning. They burst into tears and hugged each other when Diakite was unanimously convicted by the jury.
Diakite, now 20, appearing on a TV screen in front of them via video link from The Spinney mental health hospital in Manchester, showed no emotion. He then sat in silence.
A distressing 10-day trial at Liverpool Crown Court heard how the body of 20-year-old Miss Elliott-Cleverley was discovered in bed at the couple's Wavertree home in the early hours of Friday, January 29, 2021.
Evidence suggested she had been strangled with a ligature, with prosecutors pointing to a skipping rope found at the flat. Stained with the young mum's blood, the rope was "concealed beneath a bin bag" at the Prince Alfred Road property.
The victim was discovered by Diakite's support worker, Celia Cole, who visited their home after becoming concerned by phone calls from him. He had left two messages, the second at 1.49am, in which he said "sorry for everything".
When Ms Cole rang him back, he claimed Miss Elliott-Cleverley had gone to her mum's house and had left him with the baby. He told her his girlfriend had been drinking and "beat him", before adding he was going to jail and was going to kill himself.
When Ms Cole arrived, with the help of worried neighbours, she found Miss Elliott-Cleverley's body in a pool of blood. The couple's baby was sleeping in a nearby cot and Diakite, also known as Mohammed Diakite, was nowhere to be found.
He was travelling in a taxi to Liverpool One Bus Station, on the way making a phone call to his friend Ismael Donzo, who began recording the conversation. Ian Unsworth, QC, prosecuting, said during that 36-minute call "the defendant confessed to killing N'Taya".
He said: "He told Mr Donzo that he had become angry, he done everything with his hand, he punched her several times and that she had been bleeding from the nose. He claimed that she had been insulting him and sought to justify what he had done.
"He said, members of the jury, this: That he didn't want her to call the police and he go to jail. So he decided to finish it. He said that she was dead."
The prosecutor added: "There was a confession in the clearest possible terms. He decided to 'finish it'. In other words, to kill her."
The trial heard Diakite, who was taken to police by Mr Donzo and then arrested, denied this, despite a history of alleged violence to his partner. The asylum seeker, from the Ivory Coast, was previously accused by Miss Elliott-Cleverley of assaulting her during an argument in October, 2020, just two weeks after their baby was born.
In police bodycam footage, his partner told officers Diakite put his fingers down her mouth and the day beforehand had bruised her left arm by grabbing it in another row. Miss Elliott-Cleverley made a retraction statement a day later, in which she said her allegations were true, but she no longer wished to support a prosecution because it was "too much for me to cope with".
Miss Elliott-Cleverley said she just wanted to concentrate on her baby, had put a deposit down for a new property, and intended to move there alone. Just hours before her murder, she had been texting her mum about arrangements to move into that flat.
When Diakite gave evidence - speaking with the assistance of a French interpreter - he accepted grabbing her arm in October 2020, but denied putting his fingers down her mouth. He claimed he loved the victim and when accused of killing her said: "If it was me, it was somebody who used me, it wasn't me."
He told jurors that, on the night of January 28, the mum had wanted to have sex and he didn't, so her "mood changed". Diakite said he was exercising with a skipping rope, so he put the rope on their bed, then picked up their crying baby and started giving her milk.
He said Miss Elliott-Cleverley was swearing at him and she put her finger in his eyes and slapped him in the head, so he put the baby down in her cot. Asked what happened next, Diakite said: "Then I found myself in the hospital." He said putting their daughter down was the last thing he remembered.
Diakite, who was on medication for depression, said he often had thoughts of suicide, heard voices and hallucinated. However, a doctors' assessment after his arrest found Diakite was a risk of self-harm, but not psychotic at the time.
Of the defendant's claims not to recall the events, Mr Unsworth said: "It is, we suggest, a cynical and wholly false attempt to hoodwink you. It is designed to use what undoubted mental health issues he had to his own advantage."
Under cross-examination, Diakite denied "pretending" not to remember, or trying to make his partner "look bad". He said "nobody" removed Miss Elliott-Cleverley's SIM card from her mobile phone and he didn't know who "smashed" the device.
At 0.41am, Diakite left a WhatsApp voicemail message with a friend, asking him to send some money. Members of Miss Elliott-Cleverley's family sobbed in the public gallery when Mr Unsworth played the 18-second voicemail, during which he said the young mum could be heard "breathing heavily".
Diakite said he didn't know if it was his girlfriend who could be heard and denied he had beaten her. Asked whether - as he had told Mr Donzo - he then decided to "finish it", and strangled her, Diakite did not reply.
High Court judge Mr Justice Stephen Morris said Diakite will be sentenced next Monday, on March 21. He told the killer - who did not respond - that he will have to attend court for his sentencing.
