How They Caught... Mario Celaire

Mario Celaire

In April 2005 the government abolished the double jeopardy rule, which had prevented anyone from being brought before a court twice for the same crime. The law was overturned for cases with compelling new evidence. In May 2009, this new law was used to convict Mario Celaire who had already been tried once for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Cassandra McDermott.

Back in 1997, when he was just 19, Celaire, from south London, met Cassandra McDermott. They dated for two years and despite a very violent relationship, remained friends. When Cassandra started seeing someone new, Celaire became jealous. On 25 October 2001 he went round to her house and beat her so badly she died a few hours later from her injuries.

Heading up the investigation was DCI Nick Scola of the Metropolitan Police. On questioning, Celaire admitted that he had been round to see Cassandra for three hours on the night of her murder but maintained that he had left her alive and well.

Cassandra McDermott

However, police believed Cassandra had arrived home around midnight and the post mortem showed that she had died about 2 am. The timings just didn’t match up. There was also CCTV of Celaire leaving his room at the YMCA and returning the next morning. On looking into Celaire's past, DCI Scola found that the suspect had taken part in the gang rape of a teenage schoolgirl a few years earlier. Police were sure this was their man but they had to convince a jury.

However, the case was based on circumstantial evidence, and in 2001 the jury found Celaire not guilty.

Three years later Celaire was playing semi-professional football for Maidstone United and had changed his name to Mario McNish. He began dating another girl, Kara Hoyte who at 15 was an aspiring model. Once again the relationship broke up after two years but they continued to stay friends. Kara began dating someone new, and as if history was repeating itself, Celaire snapped. On 10 February 2007 he went round to her flat, wanting to sleep with her. When she refused, he beat her over the head with a hammer. Fortunately, Kara's boyfriend showed up and his knocking at the door made Mario run off.

Kara Hoyte

Kara sustained massive blows to the head. She was admitted to intensive care and given 12 hours to live. Meanwhile, police began looking into Kara's ex-boyfriends and on seeing his past history, believed Celaire could be their man. An eye witness had seen a man running to a car that matched Celaire's. Within weeks, Kara began to recover and eventually was well enough to tell her family that Celaire was the man who had attacked her.

However, under the previous law, no-one could be tried for the same crime twice. Now this had been overturned it meant that Celaire could stand trial once again.

On 21 May 2009, Mario Celaire was found guilty of the manslaughter of Cassandra McDermott and the attempted murder of Kara Hoyte. On 3 July 2009, he was sentenced to a minimum of eight years in prison for manslaughter and a minimum of 23 years for attempted murder. He will serve a total of 23 years before he is considered for parole.