Hope Rowe

A WOMAN will spend 23 years behind bars for murdering a mother at her 15-year-old nephew’s birthday party.

Hope Rowe, 33, had been convicted last month of stabbing and killing Charlotte Lawlor, from Highbury, in the early hours of September 15 last year.

In her remarks Judge Freya Newbery said: “You took her life, you took her from her family, first and foremost from her son Riley who is only 12 years old. His loss is unquantifiable and combined with that is the fact he was present when you stabbed his mother to death.”

Rowe’s two children and Ms Lawlor’s teenage nephew also witnessed the attack.

The 15-year-old cradled Ms Lawlor in her dying moments and Judge Newbery said he had been “instrumental in preventing Charlotte Lawlor from sustaining any other injuries”.

The judge awarded the teenager with a witness reward of £1,000 to recognise his efforts.

There was commotion in the court on Wednesday as Judge Newbery pronounced the 23-year sentence, and Charlotte’s mother Tammy left the room after telling the judge that the jail time was “a joke”.

Speaking to the Tribune afterwards, Tammy said: “The sentence is a joke. Life is life not 23 years. It should have started from 25 up. That is diabolical, and that is why we have so much knife crime because the sentencing over here is joke.”

She added: “There is no justice. When you take someone’s life, especially in front of their children, they should be put away and never released. She’ll still get to walk out, live her life, but my grandson hasn’t got his mum. The law over here needs to change.”

Charlotte Lawlor

Ms Lawlor’s sister Harli added that no justice “was ever going to be enough”.

She said: “No justice is going to bring our Charlotte back. Our Riley, he’s got to live with that for the rest of his life, that’s never going to leave his brain.”

Victim impact statements read out in court this week saw Charlotte described as a loving and devoted mother, who was kind and lit up a room.

Grandmother Sharon described the moment she received the call informing her that her granddaughter was dead.

She said: “In that moment my world ended, my heart broke into pieces.

“Our entire family has been devastated beyond words. I have watched my family fall apart. None of us will ever be the same again.”

Speaking later to this newspaper, she added: “I’ve lost my granddaughter, a mother, a sister. It’s just so heartbreaking, it’s just devastating.”

Detective Sergeant Dean Musgrove, from the Metropolitan Police Specialist Crime North unit, said: “Our thoughts are with the friends and family of Ms Lawlor, many of whom personally witnessed the murder. We hope that this sentence gives them some closure.”

He added: “Rowe and her partner behaved despicably. This sentence shows that killers will be pursued even in cases where they attempt to mislead investigators.”

Leigh Holder, Ms Rowe’s partner, was jailed for 16 months for perverting the course of justice.

He encouraged Ms Rowe not to surrender to the police, and helped her dispose of the murder weapon.