The son
of a Nigerian diplomat in China has received a life jail sentence in
the United Kingdom after he was found guilty of raping and murdering a
£1,800 -a-night high-class escort.
26- year- old Bala Chinda was convicted by a high court in Aberdeen, Scotland, for the murder of Jessica McGraa on February 11,2016, only a few weeks after he arrived in Scotland to study at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.
After a six- hour consideration of the evidence before them, a jury of eight women and seven men on Friday unanimously found Chinda guilty of murdering Miss McGraa, also a Nigerian, in the city centre flat.
Judge Lord Beckett told the jury they had gone about their duties commendably after listening to evidence they may have found ‘very distressing’.
Chinda, he said, had ended the life of a woman described by friends giving evidence as ‘full of fun’ and who had much left to live for.
Chinda was told he must serve a minimum of 18 years.
CCTV footage showed McGraa, 37, had gone to Chinda’s student accommodation in the city’s King Street with him in a taxi before they returned to her apartment a short time later.
She made her last call on her mobile phone a few minutes before surveillance cameras recorded Chinda, 26, walking down the street away from her flat.
Her partially clothed body was found the following day in the bedroom of a flat she had rented in the city’s Union Terrace.
Chinda who changed his phone number after McGraa’s death wept uncontrollably after he was found guilty by the jury.
The court heard that Miss McGraa died of asphyxiation and was probably smothered with a pillow and possibly strangled with her scarf.
Miss McGraa moved to the UK from Nigeria 11 years ago after meeting an English oil worker, Gareth McGraa, who had been working in a Nigerian complex.
They married and had a son but later split.
26- year- old Bala Chinda was convicted by a high court in Aberdeen, Scotland, for the murder of Jessica McGraa on February 11,2016, only a few weeks after he arrived in Scotland to study at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.
After a six- hour consideration of the evidence before them, a jury of eight women and seven men on Friday unanimously found Chinda guilty of murdering Miss McGraa, also a Nigerian, in the city centre flat.
Judge Lord Beckett told the jury they had gone about their duties commendably after listening to evidence they may have found ‘very distressing’.
Chinda, he said, had ended the life of a woman described by friends giving evidence as ‘full of fun’ and who had much left to live for.
Chinda was told he must serve a minimum of 18 years.
CCTV footage showed McGraa, 37, had gone to Chinda’s student accommodation in the city’s King Street with him in a taxi before they returned to her apartment a short time later.
She made her last call on her mobile phone a few minutes before surveillance cameras recorded Chinda, 26, walking down the street away from her flat.
Her partially clothed body was found the following day in the bedroom of a flat she had rented in the city’s Union Terrace.
Chinda who changed his phone number after McGraa’s death wept uncontrollably after he was found guilty by the jury.
The court heard that Miss McGraa died of asphyxiation and was probably smothered with a pillow and possibly strangled with her scarf.
Miss McGraa moved to the UK from Nigeria 11 years ago after meeting an English oil worker, Gareth McGraa, who had been working in a Nigerian complex.
They married and had a son but later split.
