- Rahim Mohammadi, 42, killed Lea Adri-Soejoko, 80, with a lawnmower cord
- He dumped her body in a shed on their allotment in Colindale, north London
- Kurdish Mohammadi was today found guilty of murder at retrial at Old Bailey
Rahim Mohammadi, 42 (mugshot pictured) killed Lea Adri-Soejoko, 80, with a lawnmower flex and hid her body at the Colindale allotments in north west London
A one-eyed Iranian refugee who was granted asylum in Britain has been found guilty of strangling an elderly widow to avoid being thrown off his allotment.
Rahim Mohammadi, 42, killed Lea Adri-Soejoko, 80, with a lawnmower cord in February 2017 to silence her complaints about his violent behaviour on the Colindale allotments in north west London.
The allotment secretary was found dead in a locked lawnmower shed wearing her Wellington boots and an apron with the keys in her pocket.
Mohammadi, who was given his plot by a charity for Iranian torture victims, repeatedly clashed with Mrs Adri-Soejoko in the months leading up to her murder and accused her of a 'conspiracy' over the running of the vegetable garden.
He called her a f****** b**** and had flooded her with abusive emails claiming he could run the site better.
Her body was found after her daughter Tessa raised concerns about her failing to turn up to a meeting.
When she accompanied police to the allotments she rang her mother's phone, which they heard coming from inside the shed - leading to the discovery of her body.
Mohammadi, nicknamed 'glass eye', of Bethnal Green, east London, was today found guilty of her murder following a retrial at the Old Bailey after DNA was found on the lawnmower.
Allotment secretary Lea Adri-Soejoko, 80 (pictured) was friends with her killer but the pair had fallen out over control of the site in Colindale, north west London
The former allotment holder was seen walking back and forth from the site three times on the day of the murder.
Victim: Mrs Adri-Soejoko was found when police heard her phone ringing inside her pocket
He was caught on CCTV coming out of Colindale Tube station at around 12.30pm on February 27, the last day Mrs Adri-Soejoko was ever seen.
He was then captured walking down Sheaveshill Avenue in the direction of the allotment site.
Mrs Adri-Soejoko left her home, which was only 100 yards away from the community gardens, at around 3pm.
Mohammadi was seen on CCTV walking from the allotments to some nearby shops at 3.42pm, 5pm and 5.26pm before finally heading home to east London at 5.48pm.
The killer, who is of Kurdish origin, came to the UK looking for political asylum in 2005 after being tortured by the Iranian regime.
Known by the nickname 'Glass eye', he had scarring on his body and ongoing health problems as a result of his ordeal and was provided with a bedsit room in north London.
In 2008 Mohammadi was referred to the Colindale Allotment Association - which has a seven-year waiting list for plot spaces - through the group Freedom from Torture's Medical Foundation.
At first he shared his plot with people from Africa, Iran and Afghanistan and visited it twice a week for therapy sessions with Jochen Enke.
By April 2016 he had gained sole control over his own plot where he grew potatoes, peas and a range of fruit and he was invited on to the management committee by Mr Critchley and Mrs Adri-Soejoko.
Mrs Adri-Soejoko, who lived 100 yards away from the allotment was dedicated to the running of the association, did the accounts and acted as a 'peacemaker' during any disputes.
She took pity on Mohammadi - who claimed she nicknamed him 'Little Puppy' - and even lent him money and let him visit her home regularly.
But over the next 10 months Mohammadi grew to resent the way Mrs Adri-Soejoko ran things and felt he could do a better job.
On 11 September 2016 Mohammadi shouted down other committee members during the Annual General Meeting (AGM), prompting the chair Mrs Adri-Soejoko to tell him to 'shut up'.
Mohammadi responded with by ranting at her and calling her a 'f****** b***' before storming out.
Mrs Adri-Soejoko later apologised for telling him to shut up but Mohammadi never said sorry and instead wrote a series of emails complaining about her role on the committee.
Mohammadi wrote: 'She don't like it committee asking her from the day she became secretary for one bank statement but she never bring that bank statement - if this is not called a conspiracy then what?
'She does not understand every member has the same rights she has. I don't understand why she scared to show a bank statement to others!!!'
In another he said: 'She got that wrong if she thinks she got elected from the parliament, I had my opinion and I said it, people can agree with it or disagree with it.'
He also wrote to Mrs Adri-Soejoko: 'I am in the committee and I will stay in the committee until I am in this country.
'You said something very bad in meeting for no reason and I got angry and I answer you. You came to my shed and you apologised and I did the same.'
Mrs Adri-Soejoko replied: 'I apologise to you as I may have provoked you but you did not apologise to me for the foul language you used in your outburst.'
Her granddaughter Amber Tomlinson told the court: 'She was definitely concerned
She definitely knew there was something wrong. She told me not to tell the rest of the family about the incident. She didn't want them to worry.'
Despite the rift, Mrs Adri-Soejoko gave Mohammadi responsibility for putting new locks on the allotment gates after they were broken three times in the space of a month between September and October 2016. She even paid him for the work.
In the week leading up to the murder, Mohammadi and Mrs Adri-Soejoko clashed again over another dispute between two neighbouring plot holders, which was reported to police but did not result in any action.
Mohammadi later admitted he spoke to Mrs Adri-Soejoko about the row on the day of her death, but she asked him not to get involved.
Mrs Adri-Soejoko left her home for the last time on 27 February last year to visit the allotment at around 3pm.
She had spoken to her friend Adrian Darby on the phone at 2.34pm to arrange to meet him later that day so they could attend a meeting of another allotment group in Barnet at 7.30pm.
But when Mr Darby rang her at 6.08pm, 6.22pm and 6.57pm he got no answer and contacted her daughter Tessa.
After a fruitless search they reported Mrs Adri-Soejoko missing at 1.15am before heading to the allotment with police while ringing her phone in an attempt to track the sound.
The allotment site in Colindale where the search for grandmother Mrs Adri-Soejoko ended
The scene where Mrs Adri-Soejoko's body was found in 2017. Her relatives reported her missing but found her dead with their own search party
Mrs Adri-Soejoko, who was described as being 'of robust good health' for her age and was 5ft 5 inches tall and weighed 11 stone, was resting on a wooden pallet next to a Mountfield lawnmower.
The starter cord had been pulled out of the mower to almost its full extent and wrapped tightly around her neck.
She had also suffered bruising to her arms, left wrist, left shoulder, right hand and left knee, bruising and abrasions to the face, a fracture of the spine at the base of the neck and two fractures to the fifth and ninth ribs on the left side.
The injuries suggested she had been assaulted first before being dragged into the shed and strangled.
Prosecutor John Price, QC, told the court Mrs Adri-Soejoko had been 'beaten up'.
Despite there being no sign of Mohammadi ever having assaulted the grandmother before, the prosecutor told jurors 'all was not well between them'.
'He has on occasions revealed a measure of frustration at her tolerant, indulgent and diplomatic style of management,' he said.
'She in turn did not care for his interference and on that issue could stand her ground.'
Mohammadi's outburst at the committee meeting months earlier may have been allowed to pass, but there would have been 'no willing to overlook, no forgiveness' for lashing out and striking her on the allotment on 27 February.
Mohammadi is pictured in handcuffs leaving Wimbledon Magistrates Court in March last year
'As he pondered what he had just done to her in temper, Rahim Mohammadi will have feared that he would never again be allowed to return to the allotment and much else besides,' Mr Price said.
'And so, this time acting in cold blood, he killed her.'
CCTV footage also captured Mohammadi walking from the allotment towards the shops and back three times on the afternoon of the murder, first at around 3.42pm, then at 5pm and finally at 5.26pm, when he was carrying a bottle of water.
Mohammadi left Colindale to return to his home in east London at 5.48pm.
When he was arrested he told police he visited Mrs Adri-Soejoko at her home twice that afternoon to discuss the allotment and return a measuring tape.
Detectives believe Mohammadi was the only other plot holder on the allotment with a key to the mower shed at the time of the killing of Mrs Adri-Soejoko.
Mrs Adri-Soejoko's keys were in her pocket, another committee had left the allotment at 9am, one was on holiday in Peru and another's key was bent out of shape and no longer fit the lock.
Mohammadi was charged with murder on 5 March last year but the police investigation was almost derailed on 13 April when a DNA match was made on the Police National Computer to Ghanaian criminal Mubarick Duat, 37.
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