Man pleads guilty to stabbing four members of a family to death

A man has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of four members of the same family in Bermondsey, south London, in April.

The 28-year-old man has been identified as Joshua Jacques and has admitted to killing Dolet Hill, 64; her husband, Denton Burke, 58; their daughter, Tanysha Ofori-Akuffo, 45; and granddaughter Samantha Drummonds, 27.

The incident came to light after police received a call from neighbours about a disturbance in a house on Delaford Road in Bermondsey on April 25.

The police reached the location and found the bodies of three women lying in the kitchen, while Burke's body was found at the foot of the stairs. All of them had multiple stab wounds and were pronounced dead at the scene.

Jacques, who hails from Lewisham, south-east London, was the boyfriend of Samantha Drummonds. It is still not clear what made him carry out the horrific killings.

He was found hiding naked in the upstairs bathroom, prosecutor Oliver Glasgow QC told the court. The police had to taser him during his arrest. He was taken into custody and was subsequently charged with four counts of murder.

During the hearing of a plea in connection with the case at the Old Bailey on Friday, he admitted to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility. The prosecution indicated that the case will likely go to trial as the court will not accept pleas for the lesser offence, reports The Guardian.

A neighbour who didn't want to be named told The Mirror at the time that he had heard a woman scream for five minutes. "It was awful. But when I heard the police, the helicopter, and the ambulances, I knew it was really serious."'

Dolet Hill was a former NHS worker who had just recovered from cancer. She had been married to Burke, a council worker, for 15 years.

"She was very loving, very kind, very generous, she'd do anything for you," Hill's niece Venecia Reid said about her aunt.