Deakin-White said the murder was an "accident" but now faces life in a British prison. Photo / Facebook
Deakin-White said the murder was an "accident" but now faces life in a British prison. Photo / Facebook
Before he bludgeoned her to death with a metal bar in the shower of their London flat, Australian Amy Parsons appeared to be enjoying an enviable life with her English fiance, Rod Deakin-White.
On the surface at least, it was happy and normal and 35-year-old Parsons seemed the lucky one.
There was no hint of Deakin-White's dark psychopathic jealousy, nor his alter ego as a makeup wearing woman called "Jane".
By early 2018, after an eight-year romance, Amy and Rod, 37, were reportedly headed for the altar to celebrate their "long-awaited wedding".
The union would seal her membership of the respected Deakin-White real estate family based in the affluent English market town of Dunstable, reports news.com.au.
Amy Parsons and Rod Deakin-White were due to be married, but she could not stand his cross-dressing or his controlling ways. Photo / Facebook
Amy was comfortable with the Deakin-Whites, and Rod was already a part of Amy's Melbourne family.
Each half of the couple smiled out from photographs posed with their partner's parents. Their mothers would comment on one another's Facebook pages with affectionate posts.
The Deakin-Whites and the Parsons had known each other for years.
Rod knew Amy's sister Eve who also lived with her partner, Jacqueline Leung, in London, having moved there in 2011. The following year, Amy followed her sister to the capital.
Both sisters worked as executive assistants, Amy at financial services firm, Old Mutual.
It was there Amy met James Saunders, a tall dark Englishman with whom she began having coffees
Parsons' growing bond with Saunders would crack open the truth about her life with Deakin-White, which had begun to unravel.
A graphic designer who had worked at the Royal Opera House, Deakin-White was also a keen photographer but only had intermittent, freelance jobs.
Amy paid most of the bills.
Another of Deakin-White's hobbies was cross-dressing, and at home in their flat in the London suburb of Whitechapel, in London's East End, Deakin-White would regularly don women's underwear, stockings and make-up, and had a Facebook page featuring him as a female alter-ego called Jane.
He would later tell a London court it was his form of escapism.
Behind the smiles all was not well between Amy Parsons and her fiance Roderick Deakin-White who brutally killed her. Photo / Facebook
Behind closed doors, however, his fiancee Amy was becoming frustrated with Deakin-White's private transformations and found their sex life unsatisfying.
Parsons returned to Melbourne in January last year to celebrate her engagement to Deakin-White with her mother Leonie and father Michael, and catch up with old friends.
Almost a month before her death, she was photographed smiling as she sat outside over an Easter meal and wine with Rod, his mother, brother and their partners.
But in her last fortnight alive, Parsons had embarked on a sexual relationship with Saunders after a couple of coffee dates blossomed into romance.
The pair had sex for the first time on April 14, 2018 after lunch at an Australian restaurant in London. Parsons and Saunders slept together at his flat four times.
When Deakin-White learned about Parson's new romance, they had a fight.
Amy Parsons followed Roderick Deakin-White to London, but when she told him she was leaving after a decade-long romance he bludgeoned her to death in the shower. Photo / Facebook
Parsons reportedly told him her new lover "knows how to handle me" and that if she became pregnant to Deakin-White she would abort the child.
Deakin-White texted Saunders on April 18, saying "What are you playing at? Back off."
After fleeing the scene, he went to a friend's place where he confessed that he had killed his fiance, although he would later only admit to manslaughter, saying it was an "accident".
Emergency services broke into the flat and found Parsons' bloodied, naked body.
Scotland Yard detective Darren Jones would later said Parsons "paid the ultimate price because of Deakin-White's controlling, selfish and violent nature."
"He relied on Amy's financial support and I believe he could not stand the fact that she was moving on and refused to be taken advantage of any more," Det Insp Jones said.
"Amy had become aware of what kind of person he was and was beginning to take steps to leave Deakin-White.
"These steps included a new relationship, free from Deakin-White's coercive and abusive behaviour.
"Because of this, Deakin-White launched a vicious and brutal attack on Amy, without warning and in her own home, where she should have been safe and secure."
At Snareswood court this week, Judge John Lafferty told the jury: "The murder itself was dreadful, a ghastly killing.
"This naked woman was deliberately bludgeoned in the face, naked and unable to defend herself."
The jury found Deakin-White guilty of murder and he potentially faces life in prison for the crime.
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