Jacqueline Barrett murder trial - jury told 'trusted and caring' Houssam Djemma snapped during tiff

Published: 09 June 2011
by DAVID ST GEORGE

MOTHER-of-three Jacqueline Barrett – a popular figure in Queen’s Crescent – had got her life back on track and was looking forward to a happy future when she was brutally killed, the Old Bailey has heard.

The new boyfriend she allowed to move in with her seemed a nice and easy, caring partner until he suddenly snapped, the jury was told

Jobless Houssam Djemma, the man she trusted so much, flipped during a tiny domestic tiff.

He battered 34-year-old Ms Barrett over the head with a fire extinguisher and then throttled her, jurors heard this week.

Djemma denies murder but admits killing Ms Barrett.

The court heard that Djemma was a Jekyll and Hyde character, who was good for Ms Barrett after they met by chance in a park and then began dating, but then turned into a control freak.

As she lay dead on the floor of her kitchen, 23-year-old Djemma stole what valuables she had and soon sold them.

Prosecutor Duncan Penny QC told the court that in addition to a wad of banknotes, Djemma took a new flat-screen TV, a laptop computer and an expensive computer game which he soon got rid of for cash. 

“He needed some fast cash for a getaway,” added counsel.

Ms Barrett was brought up in Gospel Oak and attended Fleet Primary and Haverstock schools. She was fiercely protective and devoted to her boys, Ashley, Daniel and Reece, now four.

With two sisters, Paula and Lorraine, and half brothers Mark and Georgie, she was from a close-knit family.

Her mum Angela told the court her daughter moved to a flat in Cricklewood in 2008.

The accused appeared to be caring when he was first with her daughter, she said, but then developed a different side which saw him demanding that she should not “look at men” on her Facebook pages.

The trial continues.