Camden News: Donald Fletcher | Mary Terrace | Tara Keohan

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Camden News - CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS and DAVID ST GEORGE
Published: 30 October 2008

Lost years of man killed by partner

Family appeal for help to piece together life of stabbing victim as woman is detained indefinitely

THE family of a man who was brutally stabbed and beaten to death are attempting to piece together the last 25 years of his life after his psychologist girlfriend was jailed for his killing.
Relatives of Donald Fletcher, 51, lost touch with him after he moved to Camden Town from the North-west.
They were trying to trace him when he was found dead in his room in Mary Terrace off Camden High Street last September.
Mr Fletcher had been beaten around the head with a blunt object and stabbed 17 times in the chest and neck after an argument with his girlfriend Tara Keohan, 32.
Detectives do not know what the row was about and Ms Keohan – a paranoid schizophrenic – says she has a complete blank over the attack.
She was found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at the Old Bailey on Thursday. Judge Gerald Gordon said she must be detained under the Mental Health Act “without limit of time” and in conditions of high security.
He told her: “You say have no memory of the killing. The doctors cannot say if that is right or wrong. The circumstances of the attack are far from clear. You now accept you must have done it. My duty is to protect the public from serious harm.”
Prosecutor Nicholas Atkinson, QC, told the court that after attacking Mr Fletcher and leaving him to bleed to death on his bed, Ms Keohan walked to a phone booth in Camden High Street, dialled 999 and “quite calmly” told police: “I want to report a GBH, someone’s bleeding to death. He’s been stabbed.”
He added they had a “volatile relationship” that meant neighbours were not initially alarmed to hear raised voices and the breaking of crockery that night.
Speaking afterwards, through the detective in charge of the case, Mr Fletcher’s family revealed they had lost touch with him after he graduated from Manchester University with a psychology degree in the 1980s.
Detective Inspector Zoe Harris said: “Donald Fletcher leaves behind a family who for around 25 years made extensive attempts to locate him. Unbeknownst to them Donald had been living a fairly solitary life behind closed doors for many years prior to his murder.”
She added: “Tragically they never got the chance to find him and feel there are many unanswered questions regarding Donald’s life.”
Mr Fletcher’s sister – who was in court to hear the verdict – his brother-in-law and two grown-up nephews are now trying to piece together his final years and are keen for anyone who may have known him to get in touch with them.
It is known he settled in Camden for the last eight years of his life because of his contact with social services in the borough, while neighbours say he talked about his time as a youth worker before moving to London.
DI Harris said: “He was living in Manchester away from the family home and then he stopped contacting them. They don’t know why and they’re really keen to know. He lost contact with them and the first piece of news they had about him in 25 years was that he’d been killed.”
Mr Fletcher had never been in trouble with police and was known to everyone as a “quiet pleasant man even in drink”, the detective said. Jeremy Carter-Manning, QC, defending Ms Keohan, described the case as “a total tragedy for the deceased’s loved ones and the family of this very unwell lady.”

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