A serial killer began a relationship with his third victim while on unescorted leave from a secure hospital to study furniture restoration, a court heard.
Theodore Johnson, 64, was still serving his sentence for strangling a former partner and was still on licence when he met mother-of four Angela Best.
Johnson also had another previous conviction for killing his former wife by pushing her off a ninth floor balcony.
When he was finally discharged from hospital it was under the condition that he notify supervisors of any relationship and that any partner might be notified of his convictions.
But he did not reveal that he was seeing Ms Best and she remained unaware of his past until just weeks before her death when she found letters revealing Johnson had killed a previous partner.
Triple killer Theodore Johnson met his third victim, Angela Best (right), while on unescorted leave from a mental health unit. He later murdered her with a clawhammer
The 51 year-old grandmother was battered and strangled to death at Johnson’s home in north London in December last year after she started seeing another man.
Johnson pleaded guilty to the murder of Ms Best on Tuesday and is due to be sentenced at the Old Bailey later today.(Fri)
Johnson, who was born in Jamaica and moved to the UK in 1980, was first convicted of manslaughter in 1981.
He was living with his wife Yvonne Johnson and their two young children at a flat in Wolverhampton when he lost his temper during an argument on 18 May 1981.
Johnson hit her with a glass vase and pushed her off the balcony of the ninth floor flat.
He was jailed for just three years at Stafford Crown Court on 4 November 1981 after jurors cleared him on murder and convicted her of the lesser charge on the basis of provocation.
Members of Johnson’s third victim, Angela Best’s, family attended today’s court hearing
Johnson moved from Wolverhampton to London with the second victim Yvonne Bennett in 1986.
Ms Bennett, who worked at an old people’s home, ended the relationship in 1992 after he became violent and she started seeing another man.
On 20 September that year he strangled her with a belt during a row at her flat in Fallowfield, Six Acres Estate, Finsbury Park.
Johnson then tried to hang himself from a tree but failed after the string he used snapped.
He admitted manslaughter again on 5 March 1993 after pleading guilty at the Old Bailey on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Doctors concluded he was depressed and had a personality disorder and he was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order under sections 37 and 41 of the Mental Health Act.
Johnson was taken into court in a wheelchair after a failed suicide bid left him disabled
Johnson was first given escorted leave from hospital in September 1994 and then unescorted leave from mid 1995.
His first application to the mental health tribunal for conditional discharge was refused on 10 May 1996.
He was discharged on 30 October 1997 on condition he reside in a halfway house, attend all appointments with medical staff and social workers and disclose any relationship with a woman.