Laila Rezk Tribute

from The Rye & Battle Observer

A south-west London teenager battered a wife and mother-of-two to death with his bare hands leaving her for dead in her Surrey home, a court has heard. The blood-soaked body of Laila Rezk was discovered by her two children as they returned home for a family dinner.

Lloyd Edwards, 19, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denies one charge of murdering the 51-year-old at her home in Kingston Vale.

Kingston Crown Court heard how Mrs Rezk was at home when Edwards entered the house and confronted her.

He launched a violent attack which left his victim with severe brain damage, deep cuts, bruising and fractures. She was still breathing when daughter Dina, then 22, and son Tamer, then 20, walked in through the open doorway.

Their mother was lying on the hallway floor with terrible head injuries. Her skirt had been pushed up and she was not wearing any underwear and her top had been moved to expose her breasts.

She was rushed to hospital but had fallen into a coma from which she never recovered.

Her husband, Maurice, who was visiting relatives in Egypt at the time of the attack, spent a few hours with his wife before her heart finally stopped and she died the day after the attack.