Lodger stabbed his married lover to death after husband caught them

Lodger, 21, who beat and stabbed his married lover to death after her husband caught them in bed together is found guilty of manslaughter by diminished responsibility after telling jury his mind was ‘going crazy’

• David Cheres, 21, killed his married lover Tiprat Argatu in June last year
• He was friends with her husband Silvui and lodged in their Whitechapel house
• A jury at the Old Bailey today cleared him of murder after hours of deliberation
• Cheres stamped on Ms Argatu’s neck, broke her larynx, stabbed with scissors 

A lodger who stabbed and beat his married lover to death after her husband caught them in bed together has been found guilty of manslaughter by diminished responsibility.  

David Cheres, 21, kicked and slashed at Tiprat Argatu, 43, with a knife and scissors at her home in Whitechapel, east London, in the early hours of January 24 last year. 

Cheres stamped on her neck, breaking bones in her larynx and stabbed her with a pair of scissors with so much force they bent in half. 

He then hid naked in a nearby bin store before he was arrested by police.

Cheres, of Ellen Street, Whitechapel, admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility but denied murder.

A jury today cleared him of the murder charge after deliberating for five and a half hours following a trial at the Old Bailey. 

David Cheres, 21, kicked and slashed at Tiprat Argatu (pictured), 43, with a knife and scissors at her home in Whitechapel, east London, in the early hours of January 24 last year

Cheres and Ms Argatu’s husband, Silviu, were said to be good friends who were sharing a house alongside three other Romanian men at the time of the ‘savage’ attack. 

Prosecutor James Dawes KC previously described how Cheres battered the victim to death in her bedroom over a period of about 50 minutes.

Mr Dawes suggested the killing was connected to the defendant’s feelings over the loss of their friendship with Silviu following the affair.  

He told jurors: ‘Tiprat suffered a savage and prolonged attack at the hands of this defendant.’

He used his shod foot, and slashed and stabbed her head and neck with a kitchen knife and a pair of long scissors.

The victim was unarmed and offered little resistance to the onslaught in which the scissors were bent in half.

Mr Dawes said: ‘Tiprat appears to have held up her hands in order to try to defend herself because some of the stab and slash wounds were on her hands and fingers.

‘He stamped on her neck, breaking bones and her larynx. He smashed the bones in her face and neck.

‘You may conclude that this attack took time, took effort and it was relentless and merciless.’

A pathologist concluded the cause of death was severe blunt impact trauma to the head and neck.

Cheres could not sleep after being caught in bed with his friend’s wife and spent the night praying and watching violent anime cartoons including ‘Angels and Demons’ before the killing. 

Cheres told the court how his mind was ‘going crazy’ the day before the attack.

He said he applied to join the British Army the day before and believed he was being ‘tested’.

He went running, read rules about Covid-19 and tried to repair a clothing rack as ‘part of the test’.

He also believed he was a ‘slayer’ after watching ‘Angels and Demons’.

 A jury today cleared Cheres of the murder charge after deliberating for five and a half hours following a trial at the Old Bailey (pictured)

When Ms Argatu came to his room with a box of paracetamol from Japan Cheres thought she was trying to tell him that he was a ‘samurai’.

‘So I took a T-shirt, I wrapped it around my hand and I went outside and I tried to smash car windows. A single car,’ he said.

When someone asked what he was doing he replied: ‘I am the slayer.’

Cheres told jurors he thought he had to have sex with Ms Argatu to ‘finish everything’.

Her husband walked in on them.

Cheres said: ‘[I felt] horrible. I had a moment of reality. I stopped believing in slayers and all of those things. And I started to think again that I’m on a test from the army, an army test.

‘I was feeling horrible. I couldn’t believe what I had done. I’m not that type of person who is doing such things.’

Jo Sidhu, KC, defending, asked: ‘Then why did you do those things, David?’

‘Because I lost my mind,’ he replied.

Police were called to the scene and discovered Cheres walking naked outside shivering with cold and with cuts and scratches on his body.

Asked where he had come from, he indicated a bin cupboard with a duvet and pillow inside.

After being arrested at the scene, Cheres told an officer: ‘I’m sorry for what I did.’

Mr Dawes suggested the killing was connected with defendant’s feelings about ‘the way his life was going’ and the loss of his friendship with the victim’s husband.

Cheres had been friends with Mrs Argatu’s spouse, who had discovered he was having sex with her just hours earlier, the court heard.

Mr Dawes said: ‘Perhaps he blamed himself or her for the breaking of this friendship.

‘What is clear, he directed this outburst of anger at Tiprat – not at himself – in the small hours of the morning, about 12 hours after (her husband) had discovered that they were having an affair.’

Earlier, housemate Flavius Cosovan gave evidence saying he heard Cheres in Ms Argatu’s bedroom on the night she was killed. 

He claimed he heard Silviu shout: ‘Why did you do this to me?’ 

The court heard that the victim was originally from Thailand and her husband was Romanian, and the attack took place at a flat in Ellen Street, Whitechapel.

Cheres, also of Ellen Street, Whitechapel, was remanded into custody to be sentenced on February 1 next year.

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