A married man, the Birmingham Child Killer, Filmon Andmichaen, who lethally stabbed his pregnant girlfriend has been convicted of murder and child destruction.
Filmon Andmichaen, 31, fatally assaulted 26-year-old Liwam Bereket in a wooded area off Freeth Street, Ladywood, Birmingham, on August 1 of the previous year, as their unborn child presented a “complication he was unwilling to accept,” as stated before Birmingham Crown Court.
Jurors deliberated for around three and a half hours before delivering unanimous guilty verdicts on Wednesday during Filmon Andmichaen’s second trial.
The initial trial failed in March because of complications related to the child destruction count, which were addressed by the Court of Appeal and persisted in the indictment presented to jurors in the subsequent trial.
The initial trial revealed that Filmon Andmichaen, residing on Haddon Road in Great Barr, dialled 999 at 9:45 PM, approximately ninety minutes after Ms. Bereket was allegedly stabbed in the neck, and informed the call handler that he had unintentionally killed his fiancée and had also attempted to take his own life. Filmon Andmichaen requested the phone handler to dispatch officers to his location, where he would indicate her whereabouts.
Prosecutor Sandip Patel KC told the jury the defendant “must have known Liwam’s condition was perilous and that time was of the essence and yet he expressed a desire for the emergency services to go to him first”.
When Ms Bereket was eventually found, face down and bleeding from her neck in an area of overgrown bushes, an emergency Caesarean section was carried out to try to save her baby girl but she was stillborn.
Mr Patel said while the injury to Ms Bereket’s neck was very serious she would not have died immediately and may have been able to “walk or run around before collapsing”.
Instead of immediately calling 999, Filmon Andmichaen was captured on CCTV walking towards a nearby canal with a bag in his hand after the stabbing. He was then spotted without the bag as he walked back to his car, a white Toyota Yaris, before turning around and heading back towards the canal.
Mr Patel said Filmon Andmichaen may have been trying to get rid of evidence and the knife used in the stabbing was never found. He was also seen returning to the scene of the stabbing with his brother, who later told police he was concerned after seeing Filmon Andmichaen with wet clothes and urged him to call 999 if he had committed a crime.
The court heard the defendant had previously told Ms Bereket, who was enjoying her pregnancy despite suffering morning sickness, to terminate the baby because he already had a wife and children – something that left her upset.
Filmon Andmichaen’s wife, who came to live with him in Haddon Road from Uganda after they met on Facebook in September 2021, had no idea about Ms Bereket and said their marriage had been “good”.
Filmon Andmichaen and his wife were married in January 2022. The court heard that friends of Ms Bereket were concerned that Andmichaen was verbally abusive and threatening, and a neighbour in Haddon Road told police he had seen the defendant punching her in the face months before she was stabbed.
Ms Bereket’s bank cards and phone were found after her death in a bag in the boot of Filmon Andmichaen’s car with his fingerprints on them.
Mr Patel said during the first trial: “The defendant’s fingerprints were found on her phone. He said the death of Ms Bereket and his child was a terrible accident and not deliberate. Ms Bereket did not die instantly and in fact showed some signs of life two hours after being wounded but the defendant did not call for help.
“He took her phone, which we say was intended to prevent her seeking help as we know timely medical intervention may have saved her life. We say the defendant knew his actions would amount to the death of them both.
“He couldn’t possibly have Liwam alive because she would identify him as the person who tried to kill her and he delayed in calling for help and disposed of the knife which would have had his DNA and her blood on it. This is a case of grave consequences.
“It ended the life of a young, innocent woman and the unborn child she nourished inside her. The facts are as simple as they are gruesome. Filmon Andmichaen made a chilling decision, he decided the life growing inside his girlfriend was a complication he was unwilling to accept. He decided his solution to this was a permanent one.”
Filmon Andmichaen, who appeared in the dock alongside an interpreter who translated the proceedings into Tigrinya, a language spoken in east Africa, kept his hands clasped in front of him as the jury returned their verdicts.
Judge Mr Justice Choudhury KC thanked the jury for their hard work during the trial and said he would sentence Filmon Andmichaen on Wednesday afternoon.
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