A Nigerian man who murdered a young colleague after she ended their brief relationship has been sentenced to life in prison in the United Kingdom.
Adedapo Adegbola, 40, fatally stabbed Stephanie Irons, 23, in the neck at her home in Mapperley on 21 October 2025. The attack followed what prosecutors described as a short, controlling relationship that Irons had chosen to end.
At Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday, February 5, 2026, Adegbola was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 25 years after pleading guilty to murder last month.
The court heard that Adegbola, a social worker who moved to the UK in 2022, had become obsessed with Irons. Days before the killing, he bought two knives “in order to kill.” On the evening of the attack, he travelled by taxi to her address on Westdale Lane West, entered the property shortly after she arrived home from work, and remained inside for nearly two hours.
Prosecutors said Adegbola inflicted multiple wounds before delivering the fatal cut to Irons’s neck. After the attack, he sat on the sofa while she lay dying or dead, then left with her phone and keys, locking the flat behind him. He later disposed of his clothing and the murder weapon.
Colleagues, concerned when Irons failed to respond, went to her home and contacted police. Officers eventually entered through a rear window and found her on the floor surrounded by blood. The court was also told Adegbola sent sexually explicit screenshots from Irons’s phone to colleagues, likely after her death.
Sentencing, Judge Nirmal Shant KC said Adegbola’s controlling behaviour led Irons to end the relationship and that he was “not prepared to accept that.” He described the killing as a deliberate act against a compassionate young woman whose only fault was having cared for him.
Irons’s mother told the court her daughter “lit up the room” and wanted to make the world kinder. Adegbola wept as her statement was read.
After fleeing, Adegbola handed himself in to police on 22 October and later pleaded guilty in January.
Detective Inspector Stuart Barson said Irons’s family had shown “incredible strength and bravery,” adding in a family statement: “We have lost our beautiful daughter and shining light. While justice will be done, time will never heal our loss.”
