Murdered mother was sexually assaulted

A woman who was beaten to death in the street was sexually assaulted before she was killed, it was revealed today.

Corinne Bailey had gone to buy cigarettes in the early hours and was returning home at the time of the attack.

Her killer dragged her body into an alley and dumped it under the window of a church hall playgroup.

Today, a mound of sand used to cover the bloodstains still marks the spot.

Ms Bailey, 38, lived in a one-bedroom flat on Campbell Road, close to Croydon town centre and a short walk from the church where her body was found.

The street was once a smart enclave of substantial Victorian homes but is now divided into bedsits. A hostel for benefit claimants dominates one side of the road.

The mother-of-two had stayed in Campbell Road for about six months.

A little after 4am last Saturday morning, she left her flat and headed for an all-night store on London Road. She often stayed up late waiting for her boyfriend who worked nights.

Ms Bailey walked east along London Road towards the shop, straight into the path of her killer. She passed numerous clubs and late-night bars where plenty of people would have been milling around.

About 90 minutes before she reached the shop, a 26-year-old prostitute was attacked by a man who beat her and tried to strangle her. She collapsed, unconscious, then came to and began screaming.

Two men heard her cries and chased off the attacker. He is described as tall, slim, about 27 years old with short fair hair; this is the man police think came back later to stalk Ms Bailey and murder her.

Ms Bailey, unaware of the danger, bought a newspaper, a can of lager and cigarettes before walking back along London Road and right into her street.

She was attacked shortly afterwards behind a parked van and beaten about the head and neck repeatedly, probably with some kind of club.

She was kicked, stamped on and sexually assaulted. Her injuries were so severe she was unrecognisable. A security guard working in the Phillips building near the attack heard nothing. Police are still building a profile of Ms Bailey. She was raised in the Caribbean in a close-knit family of 11 children and had studied at university, her friends said, before working in social services in south London.

This was where she met her husband, a health professional, and the couple had two sons aged nine and 10. About six years ago the couple separated.

Ms Bailey moved to a house in Streatham with her children, though her behaviour soon began to disturb her friends and neighbours.

She worked nearby, but according to one source, she was sacked because of constant rowing with other people there.

One former neighbour said she sometimes flew into tempers and earlier this year her children were put into their father's custody.

"That was a very sad thing for her," shopkeeper Alex Odewale said. He runs a small supermarket close to Ms Bailey's flat in Campbell Road and chatted to her when she came into his shop. "She had been very depressed recently," he said. "She was missing her kids and I think she found it very hard."

People who had started to get to know her in Campbell Road spoke of a troubled woman whose mood would turn suddenly from bright and happy to deep despair.

One neighbour said: "She often had visitors to her flat late at night and a few weeks ago there was a terrific commotion.

"A glass door in the corridor was smashed in and a complaint was made to the landlord."

Things quietened down after that incident and about the only person who visited late at night was her boyfriend.

He tried to call her on her mobile telephone the night she was murdered and raised the alarm when he failed to get through. By then, however, it was already too late.