Man killed girlfriend pushing her from window in Camberwell murder-suicide due to “spiral of depression”

BY JAMES TWOMEY
james@slpmedia.co.uk

A man pushed his girlfriend out of an eighth floor flat window before jumping shortly after in a murder-suicide, a coroner has ruled.

Tony Taylor, 33, killed Renata Poncova, also 33, when he threw her out of their flat window in Marchwood Close, Camberwell on November 2 last year.

The inquest heard that Taylor had fallen into a “spiral of depression” when he lost his job and ruled he jumped from the window after pushing Ms Poncova.

Her family attended the inquest and her mother said in a statement: “Renata was a happy child and everyone wanted to have a child like her.

She had a good relationship with her family and never went through any traumatic experience.”

Neighbours said they heard screaming from the flat before midnight and paramedics pronounced the pair dead at the scene at 12.30am on November 3.

At the time of the deaths, Detective Inspector Phil Coster said: “Evidence at the flat and a possible disturbance at the flat prior to the fall leads us to believe there are suspicious circumstances.

At the inquest, Detective Sergeant Daniel Catmull said: “My conclusion was that Mr Taylor has opened the window; that is because of the prints from him and the position of them.

“I believe that Mr Taylor has struck the underneath of her arm, freeing that hand therefore unbalancing her and it was then a case of buffeting her legs up to lift her which is why she remains so close to the building, striking the window beneath her.”

Ms Poncova was born in Bratislava, Slovakia and worked as a shop assistant.

Taylor moved to Camberwell from Barbados and the inquest said he had been suffering with poor mental health in the days leading up to murdering Ms Poncova and taking his own life.