Woman stabbed mum to death with birthday cake knife at child’s party

A woman who was ‘spoiling for a fight’ stabbed a mum to death at a child’s birthday party over a row about keys.

Hope Rowe, 33, knifed Charlotte Lawlor, 31 ​​outside Hebrides Court in Stepney Green, East London in the early hours of September 15 last year following a row over lost keys.

The incident occurred as Rowe was ‘spoiling for a fight’ with Charlotte who ‘just wanted to go home’ after celebrating a child’s birthday in a block of flats.

As Charlotte was about to get a taxi home, Rowe stabbed her in the chest. She then followed her to the lobby and attempted to inflict further wounds.

Hundreds of family members and friends paid tribute to Charlotte at her funeral last October, wearing sploshes of red on their clothing as a homage to her fiery personality.

Her mum Tammy said in a poem: ‘Our precious daughter. There is no-one else on earth so special as you were to me. I will hold you forever in my heart and memory.’

Jurors heard that Rowe was quickly driven away and assisted in disposing of the knife by her boyfriend, Leigh Holder, 37, who later when questioned by police misdirected officers to Rowe’s sister’s home.

He was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice.

Rowe, who now faces a life sentence, later handed herself in to Bethnal Green Police Station after admitting to a friend on Tiktok ‘this is bad’.

Despite admitting to manslaughter with diminished responsibility before the trial, she blamed her actions on a personality disorder and said she had no recollection of the stabbing.

Two psychiatric experts who gave evidence to the court reached opposite conclusions on whether Rowe’s ability to control her behaviour was substantially impaired by a personality disorder.

Her claims to not recall the incident were further undermined by a later phone voicemail exchange with Holder in which she expressed pleasure at having killed Charlotte.

She also claimed to have been stabbed by a key, causing blood to gush out of her and giving her recollections of a past miscarriage.

Charlotte Newell KC, prosecuting, said Rowe had attacked Charlotte Lawlor out of ‘revenge for disrespecting her and getting the better of her in a fight that she incited’.

‘She did not like the way Charlotte Lawlor stood up to her and spoke to her’, she said.

Both Rowe and Holder will be sentenced by Judge Freya Newbery at a later date.

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