This is the violent mother of a teenage murderer who successfully claimed asylum in Britain because she is a lesbian and has been allowed to live here despite her string of convictions.
Sandra Espeut’s gangster son Ochaine Williams was jailed for 12 years for stabbing to death 21-year-old Steven Grisales in the street in Edmonton, North London, in 2011.
The 50-year-old Jamaican’s own life of crime is laid bare today after a serious case review was published into her 15-year-old son’s murder and seven years of council and GP failures before it.
Espeut, a recovering alcoholic who calls herself a ‘supermum’, subjected Williams and his siblings to ‘extraordinary levels of violence, emotional and physical abuse and criminality’, a serious case review revealed last week.
Another child in her care was left with 60-plus injuries but despite social workers considering her a key suspect who had ‘physically abused a child previously’, nothing was done.
Pictured: Mother-of-four Sandra Espeut, pictured working in her London hair and nail salon, came to Britain in 2000 after claiming asylum because she is a lesbian and feared violence in her native Jamaica
Tragic: Ochaine Williams was 15 when he stabbed aspiring architect Steven Grisales to death on a London street. A serious case review has revealed a series of failings by social services in the run up to the killing
Mr Grisales had been planning on studying architecture at Westminster University
Tragic: Ochaine Williams, left, was 15 when he stabbed to death aspiring architect Steven Grisales, right, who had confronted his gang for pelting him with conkers in the street
MailOnline can also reveal the authorities knew she was a ‘serial offender’ with convictions for shoplifting and violence, but this was not ‘fully considered’ as part of her asylum application, which has allowed her to stay in Britain for 15 years.
She now lives in a respectable north London suburb and is the director of a busy hair and nail salon – but her neighbours claim her behaviour is making their lives intolerable because of her ‘day and night’ partying.
One neighbour, who would not give her name for fear of reprisals, said: ‘It’s a very violent home, I see it all the time. They are very rowdy, very aggressive people. They play music from six in the morning until six the next day at such high volumes.
‘It’s been awful. They moved in a few years before her son did what he did. I’m really scared of those people.
‘They are the worst of the worst of the worst. I’m waiting every day for them to move. Every single day I pray’.
Espeut’s Facebook account reveals how she lives a party lifestyle and has been able to ‘tour Europe’ by car, visiting places including Amsterdam since her son was jailed.
In one video filmed as she drives through France in a new 4×4 vehicle she says: ‘Oh my god. I feel like a superstar. I’ve toured Europe and I’m now at France. I’m so proud of myself. I’m a supermum’.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights, Francois Crepeau attends a press conference in Doha on November 10, 2013 at the end of his visit looking at the situation of Qatar’s immigrant workers. The energy-rich Qataris have been widely lambasted by trade unions and human rights groups over their treatment of Asian workers employed on the multi-billion-dollar 2022 World Cup construction programme. AFP PHOTO / AL-WATAN DOHA / KARIM JAAFAR == QATAR OUT = (Photo credit should read KARIM JAAFAR/AFP/Getty Images) UN likens Britain to NAZI Germany over threat to quit…
Espeut came to Britain in 2000 with her children and claimed asylum because of her sexuality but this was initially rejected because the Home Office refused to believe she was genuinely a lesbian.
Officials also questioned why she had waited until she was 39 to come to the UK if her life had been in danger.
But after years of taxpayer-funded legal battles Espeut successfully managed to claim asylum because she argued a return to Jamaica would put her life in danger.
Miss Espeut first lived in Sheffield with her children, who were aged 21, 11, seven and four at the time, but officials questioned why a homosexual woman kept getting pregnant by different men.
The mother-of-four, who was 39 at the time, claimed that she entered relationships with men to hide her sexuality after she and her female lover were targeted by homophobic thugs.
One Home Office official said in a report on her case: ‘While I accept that homosexuals (at least men) do enter heterosexual relationships to conceal their sexuality, the appellant seems to have done so to an extraordinary degree.’
Having fun: Sandra Espeut parties with friends has led to complaints from neighbours that she has been making their lives a misery
Having fun: Sandra Espeut parties with friends has led to complaints from neighbours that she has been making their lives a misery
Criticism: Espeut, left and right, was criticised last week in a serious case review into how she brought up her son and how he went on to kill
‘I’m a super mum’ Sandra filmed as she re-enters the UK
Another added: ‘I do not find it credible that a lesbian, entering into a relationship to conceal her sexuality, would remain in the relationship for such a lengthy period of time or would risk getting pregnant.’
Espeut said she had scars that backed up her claims and claimed that on one occasion she was hospitalised for a year after a vicious acid attack.
Campaign: Sandra Espeut has maintained her son is innocent and protested outside the Old Bailey after he was jailed for murder
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Campaign: Sandra Espeut has maintained her son is innocent and protested outside the Old Bailey after he was jailed for murder
She said at the time: ‘My girlfriend and I couldn’t go out in the streets because they would shout, “We’re going to kill you”. People used to beat us on the road.
‘When I first applied for asylum, they refused me and said they didn’t believe I was a lesbian. They said if I was, I should have left Jamaica long ago.’
Miss Espeut, who is believed to be in a relationship with a woman, added: ‘I had to put myself with a man to cover myself from the beating.’
After a series of appeals, which she put before the welfare of her own children, her stay in Britain continued for several years and eventually she was granted asylum.
Even when in Sheffield her children had described their home as a ‘scary place to be’ and Ochaine Williams had complained that people had wanted to ‘hurt him’ there.
One neighbour said: ‘Sandra was a bit of a nuisance and she got on the woman next door’s nerves. She was always getting in taxis and there were always people coming and going in cars. She had a woman who was a lover and she came by all the time.
“She was only here for just over 12 months then they left. I thought she’d been kicked out or rehomed by the council at first but then I heard she’d moved to London’.
The serious case review added that Ochaine’s ‘regular A&E attendances for trauma injuries, including a bullet wound and burns, were not explored in relation to child welfare’.
On the rare occasions his mother was taken to task about the alleged beatings, her alcoholism and criminal behaviour, she had claimed they were lies and was believed.
The mother-of-four was implicated in at least 40 incidents of household violence and violence against others, and despite ‘frequent’ court appearances she avoided jail after claiming she was anxious about her immigration status and ‘role as a mother’.
At home she claimed that social services’ entire interaction with her family came from a misunderstanding which began when her daughter became angry she was not allowed a dog.
Last week’s serious case reviews admits around ten years ago an opportunity may have been missed in Sheffield to take her children into care.
But the mother challenged them in court and then the council got the impression she was taking her family back to Jamaica so in the end let the children stay with her.
Instead, from 2004 onwards, she moved around the country with her children and settled in London, where seven years of failures by councils and GPs preceded her son’s murder of Steven Grisales.
In this period social workers accepted that criminality in her home was routine and the children faced ‘astonishing’ levels of violence ‘perpetrated within and against the household’, which ‘were normalised and tolerated unchallenged’ by the authorities.
Home: Espeut and her family live in this respectable north London street in a private rented house, but neighbours say that they ‘pray’ for them to move on
Home: Espeut and her family live in this respectable north London street in a private rented house, but neighbours say that they ‘pray’ for them to move on
Work: Espeut claimed asylum in 2000 after coming to the UK with her family and now is a director of this nail and hair salon in London
Evidence: Sandra Espeut, pictured in 2000 after arriving in Britain, said she had scars that backed up her claims of violence in Jamaica and said on one occasion she was hospitalised for a year after an acid attack
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Evidence: Sandra Espeut, pictured in 2000 after arriving in Britain, said she had scars that backed up her claims of violence in Jamaica and said on one occasion she was hospitalised for a year after an acid attack
A psychologist had already warned before the murder that Ochaine Williams, who already had convictions for assault and burglary, ‘was going to harm someone’.
He also had consorted with youths in gangs who had histories of violent crime, and had allegedly been implicated in crimes involving knives and guns.
Turned around: MailOnline made attempts to speak to Miss Espeut, who has apparently turned her life around after problems with alcohol and a string of convictions
Turned around: MailOnline made attempts to speak to Miss Espeut, who has apparently turned her life around after problems with alcohol and a string of convictions
But social workers at Haringey Council were too busy after the Baby P scandal and ‘tolerated’ Williams’ ‘chaotic’ home life and his mother’s behaviour.
The family then moved to Enfield in a neighbouring north London borough, but the authorities again failed to deal with the troubled schoolboy or his family.
In 2011 Steven Grisales, who had returned to Britain from Argentina before his death to study architecture at Westminster University, was murdered in the street by Williams.
Mr Grisales, 21, who had hoped to become an architect, was stabbed after a row with three members of the Northumberland Park Killers gang.
Williams, who carried out his first street robbery at 12, ripped off his electronic tag when he carried out the stabbing.
His victim had urged the teenagers to stop throwing conkers at him in the street, and was murdered for it.
Meanwhile his mother, who maintains her drinking days are behind her, has maintained her son is innocent and after he was jailed for life in 2012 appealed for the ‘true killer’ to come forward.
She arrived at the Old Bailey wearing a ‘My son is innocent’ T-shirt and said: ‘By the name of God we are going to come out victorious – it is going to happen, he is going to come out’.
But her son lost his appeal against the conviction in November and Sandra Espeut was in court just a matter of months ago herself.
She was given a community order for stealing clothes worth £639.74 from H&M, and £281 worth of items from JD Sports in Chelmsford on October 2 last year, and also banned from the Essex town.
Espeut and her family have moved from property to property in London and her current family live in Enfield.
Neighbours told MailOnline that living next door them is a ‘nightmare’ and they want them evicted.
Those living around them say the ‘dangerous’ family hold all night parties and are regularly violent.
Sentence: Mr Grisales’ parents Andres and Jasmid outside of court following their son’s killer’s trial in 2012. Ochaine Williams’ appeal was rejected last year
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Sentence: Mr Grisales’ parents Andres and Jasmid outside of court following their son’s killer’s trial in 2012. Ochaine Williams’ appeal was rejected last year
Heartbreaking: Like Mr Grisales, who was murdered on this spot, Williams had moved to the country from Jamaica as a child – but the violence and criminality which surrounded him put him on a completely different path
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Heartbreaking: Like Mr Grisales, who was murdered on this spot, Williams had moved to the country from Jamaica as a child – but the violence and criminality which surrounded him put him on a completely different path
One went as far as to say that the only solution is to deport Espeut, who has been seen with lesbian lovers, back to Jamaica where she claims she will be attacked for her sexuality.
YET ANOTHER SCANDAL FOR COUNCIL WHO FAILED BABY PETER
Haringey social services boss Sharon Shoesmith was awarded £679,000 for unfair dismissal from her job despite the near collapse of her department.
Ed Balls, who was Children’s Secretary in the Labour government at the time, had her sacked from her £133,000-a-year job but a judge ruled she had been unfairly dismissed in 201.
Ms Shoesmith, who later complained of struggling to find work afterwards, was fired after a damning report into the death of Baby Peter in 2007, who was subjected to months of abuse.
She had presided over Haringey social workers while they failed to save the life of 17-month-old Peter Connelly.
Her department has now been further tarnished by the case of Ochaine Williams and his family.
Last week’s serious case review also said social services were overstretched because of the scandal surrounding Peter’s death.
Baby P died after suffering months of abuse from his mother, her boyfriend and his brother, even though the family had been seen on 60 occasions by social workers, health workers and others.
Shoesmith won her unfair dismissal case in October and was awarded the payout, the terms of which Haringey Council kept confidential.
But the council’s accounts revealed she was awarded £679,452 in compensation.
One neighbour, who would not give her name, said: ‘They party for days on end.
‘You take the worst possible scenario from people and to top it off her son’s a murderer. They are always fighting and are very aggressive.’
She said she often sees acts of physical violence from the family that moved in around two years before one of Sandra’s sons Ochaine Williams killed a man when he was aged 15.
Another neighbour who also refused to give their name, fearing they would be targeted by the nightmare neighbours, explained the horror of living nearby.
The local said: ‘They are dangerous. I hope they take away her family. They have really spoilt the neighbourhood. They party, they do lots of things. The mother, she’s into everything. It’s madness.’
Children and grandchildren are always coming and going as are Espuet’s female partners, the neighbours said.
Previously the Home Office tried to argue that Espeut was not lesbian and should be deported but it failed and she has remained in Britain despite her persistent offending.
A neighbour said: ‘It’s rubbish that she would be killed if she went back to Jamaica. We are in 2015, come on.
‘She wouldn’t be hurt. But we have more of a chance being hurt here with her in the country.
‘They have to get her out the country, they have to deport her. Since they moved her it’s been a nightmare.’
MailOnline approached her while she was at work but she said she did not know who Sandra Espeut was. Neighbours said the woman we spoke to was Sandra Espeut.
One of Sandra Espeut’s sons denied knowing anything about violence in the family home where a report described it as being abundant in ‘astonishing’ levels.
Jay, who appeared to be in his 20s, claimed not to have been aware of the report at the door of the home in Edmonton, north London.
When asked about the serious case review, he said: ‘I don’t know anything about that. I’ve just got back from uni.’
And when asked about violence in the home, he said: ‘I have never heard of any such things’.
YOU FINALLY BECOME FAMOUS DEAD WOMAN SANDRA. YOU NEED GOD IN YOU LIFE.
Can’t read all of the article…..but a good for England, let them keep her lesbian ass and bad pickney dem Jamaica don’t want them.
It is because of ppl like these make David Cameron and his conservative friends a sharply cut back pon immigration and benefits. These ppl always use the homosexuality card fi claim asylum. Then when them get it they live pon dole and other government benefits.
They need to revoke her stay and send her back to jamaica, f**kery like this makes it hard for others who genuinely want to make their life better but no , they let f**king scum like this take the piss while other people ( no matter what country) have to fight hard to get or try and get their status in the UK.
These are the ones that Theresa May should but up in the courts personally denying their right to stay in the UK.
We don’t want such dogshit down there, My people have enough demons they have to deal with. Let HER and her Satan offspring stays in London. For you to use a knife and stab a next human and killed them, You is indeed a wicked Bitch. Landon please to keep she and her kids.
A good if them that all sort a evil is able to draw the gay card.
reading this just got me cross at the people dem job and mi have reports fi run, mi nuh know if england fool or stupid either way this witch needs to be sent home a f**king broom this is the reason jamaicans have such a bad name mi ignorant fi dem she an are son of sam pickney dem need some holy water and oil jesus him self affi pray fi dem but beleive me when i say there is always an end for people like this so you live so you shall die dem sick mi.
I wish I know a magician. That way I could put in a request to get this 50 – yr – old – dyke and her murderous son disappear from the media. Now THAT would be a trick. One would think that a grown ass woman her age would be in the news for something more positive, or relevant. Instead, look wey she inna de news fa: being a shoplifter, lesbianism, and son charge fe murder, among other things. Now THIS is what you call a derailed trainwreck. Barf!!!
Steven and my son meet in secondary school, and came to our home and Vices
Vera. Steven and my son best friends. Unfortunately my son left the secondary a few years later. Eventually both boys lost contact, Then Facebook came along and they found each other again. They arrange to meet in a few weeks. Then found out he was murdered. It broke our heart. Steven was such a lovely, polite, smart,
Well mannered kid and in his short adulthood. I miss this young man so much, it still
Breaks my heart even now that we never got to meet
Him one last
Time. Maybe thing would
Of turned out differently. RIP STEVEN G XXX. Love to your family and your baby sister.
(She must be a grown adult now) keep watching over her and you
Mum xxx