‘You are a coward’ mum tells Woolwich caretaker who killed daughter

Mark Moodie, 55, murdered 24-year-old Maureen Gitau on December 5 last year before disposing of her body in a bin and putting it out for collection. 

On Friday (December 1, 2023) Maureen’s mum, Jane, addressed Moodie in a heartbreaking victim impact statement. 

“You are a coward and a cold-hearted murderer,” Jane said. “You preyed on a vulnerable and sweet girl who would never hurt anyone. You’ve never even given us a reason why you took her away from us.” 

She said: “You will never understand the pain we will feel without her in our lives.” 

Maureen’s sister, Lucy, said: “You should have been protecting her, she was young enough to be your daughter but you used her.”  

Maureen was 24 years old when she was murdered (Image: Met Police)Maureen was last seen by her family at her aunt’s birthday party at their shared home in Deptford where she had been “in a good mood, playing with the children”.  

Maureen left the party to meet Moodie, a friend from work, who took her to a block of flats on Blackheath Hill where he was employed as a caretaker – she never left the building alive. 

Jane said: “I will never forget that day, and the panic and fear I felt when she didn’t come back.” 

CCTV footage showed Moodie moving a large communal waste bin around the basement of Richmond House.  

Mark Moodie moving rubbish (Image: Met Police)He put her body in the waste bin and covered it with sacks of rubbish before putting it out for collection, prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward told the court.  

It was then taken to a processing plant on Landmann Way in Deptford on December 8 where it was “inevitably” incinerated. 

“We do not have a body to take home to bury. Our right as a family to say goodbye has been taken away,” Jane said. 

“Its like she never existed,” Jane added. 

Because the body was destroyed the means by which Moodie murdered her has never come light. 

“You have never given an account of what happened between the two of you in Richmond House. No one but you knows why you killed her,” Judge Nicholas Lavender said. 

Maureen’s family described the pain they felt as Moodie attempted to “defame” and smear her name during the subsequent murder trial. Moodie and Maureen at Richmond House (Image: Met Police)“We had to find out about Maureen’s last hours in the trial like everyone else,” Jane said. 

Jane described Maureen as a beautiful and happy woman who brought joy to her whole family.  

She said Maureen had her whole life ahead of her and wanted to become a dental nurse.  

“Such a joyful child, I cannot explain the pain and the hole that has been left in my life,” Jane said. 

Maureen’s sister, Lucy, said: “Maureen was my sister, my friend, my laughing partner and my prayer partner. She was loved and still is loved.”   

As Judge Lavender sentenced Moodie to life in prison with a minimum term of 20 years, the defendant proclaimed: “I do not kill her, sir.”