Killer searched for ‘Breaking Bad’ style poison before stabbing couple to death in Ilford sheltered housing

A jilted lover – who stabbed to death his former fiancée and her new partner – searched for ‘Breaking Bad’ inspired poison before killing them, a court has heard.

Paul Mallin, 51, was jailed for 19 years at the Old Bailey today for killing his ex girlfriend Karen Read, 53, and her new fiancee John Down, 86.

He stabbed them to death with a 10 inch carving knife in Fernways sheltered housing, Cecil Road, Ilford, where the three of them lived, on September 5 last year.

Mallin had become jealous when his fiancee, Miss Read, had left him for Mr Down, a great-grandfather, in February of that year.

The defendant had searched for “poison” more than 300 times on his Samsung phone, including “how to make poison to kill a human” and “poison untraceable from autopsy”.

Mallin also searched for “ricin Breaking Bad”, referencing the TV show where Bryan Cranston’s chemistry teacher character, Walter White, poisons people to expand his drug empire.

The Common Serjeant of London Judge Richard Marks QC described Mallin’s crime as “horrific and abhorrent”.

Mallin was originally charged with two counts of murder, but the prosecution accepted a manslaughter plea in January with diminished responsibilty, after psychiatric and psychological reports showed he was mentally ill.