{"id":193763,"date":"2026-02-06T11:37:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T10:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/nigerian-man-sentenced-to-life-for-murder-of-uk-girlfriend"},"modified":"2026-02-06T12:48:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T11:48:52","slug":"nigerian-man-sentenced-to-life-for-murder-of-uk-girlfriend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerian-man-sentenced-to-life-for-murder-of-uk-girlfriend","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian man sentenced to life for murder of UK girlfriend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>A Nottingham Crown Court has handed a life sentence to 40-year-old Adedapo Adegbola for the murder of his former girlfriend, 23-year-old university student, Steph Irons.<\/p>\n<p>According to Irish Reports on Thursday, Adegbola admitted to killing Irons at her Mapperley residence on October 21, 2025, following the end of their brief relationship.<\/p>\n<p>The court heard that the couple had met while working together and dated for a short period before separating.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors revealed that Adegbola became fixated on Irons after the breakup, purchasing two knives online and travelling to her home by taxi.<\/p>\n<p>He reportedly attacked her outside as she took out the trash, then forced his way into the house, stabbing her multiple times.<\/p>\n<p>Irons\u2019 colleagues became alarmed after receiving distressing messages from her phone, prompting police to investigate.<\/p>\n<p>Officers discovered her body in the living room, where she was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n<p>Following the murder, Adegbola allegedly fled, discarding bloodstained clothing and other evidence along streets in Mapperley and Carlton.<\/p>\n<p>Nottinghamshire Police said he travelled through Mansfield, Worksop, Sheffield, and Hull before eventually surrendering.<\/p>\n<p>Although he declined to answer questions during questioning, investigators were able to reconstruct his movements before and after the attack.<\/p>\n<p>The court sentenced Adegbola to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 25 years.<\/p>\n<p>Detective Inspector Stuart Barson, the lead investigator, described Irons as a \u201ckind and compassionate young woman\u201d whose life ended in \u201cterrifying circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that Adegbola made no effort to seek medical attention for her and instead chose to flee while disposing of evidence.<\/p>\n<p>In a victim impact statement, Irons\u2019 mother said her daughter\u2019s death had left the family \u201cdevastated.\u201d She described the student, who had aspired to pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology, as loving, caring, and full of promise.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. A Nottingham Crown Court has handed a life sentence to 40-year-old Adedapo Adegbola for the murder of his former girlfriend, 23-year-old university student, Steph Irons. According to Irish Reports on Thursday, Adegbola admitted to killing Irons at her Mapperley residence on October 21, 2025, following the end of their brief relationship. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":193762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-193763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Nigerian man sentenced to life for murder of UK girlfriend - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Nottingham Crown Court has handed a life sentence to 40-year-old Adedapo Adegbola for the murder of his former girlfri ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerian-man-sentenced-to-life-for-murder-of-uk-girlfriend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nigerian man sentenced to life for murder of UK girlfriend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Nottingham Crown Court has handed a life sentence to 40-year-old Adedapo Adegbola for the murder of his former girlfri ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerian-man-sentenced-to-life-for-murder-of-uk-girlfriend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-06T10:37:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-06T11:48:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1770378506.234312.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"682\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerian-man-sentenced-to-life-for-murder-of-uk-girlfriend#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerian-man-sentenced-to-life-for-murder-of-uk-girlfriend\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Nigerian man sentenced to life for murder of UK girlfriend\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-06T10:37:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-06T11:48:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerian-man-sentenced-to-life-for-murder-of-uk-girlfriend\"},\"wordCount\":312,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerian-man-sentenced-to-life-for-murder-of-uk-girlfriend#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1770378506.234312.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerian-man-sentenced-to-life-for-murder-of-uk-girlfriend#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerian-man-sentenced-to-life-for-murder-of-uk-girlfriend\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerian-man-sentenced-to-life-for-murder-of-uk-girlfriend\",\"name\":\"Nigerian man sentenced to life for murder of UK girlfriend - 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