Theodore Johnson has admitted murdering his ex-partner. It is the third time he has killed someone, having previously been convicted on two occasions of manslaughter

A garage worker who killed two girlfriends went on to murder a third after he was freed from a secure unit just two years into his sentence.

Serial killer Theodore Johnson, 64, strangled and battered ex-girlfriend Angela Best, 51, to death in December 2016 after she found out about his dark past and ended their relationship.

Johnson was first convicted of manslaughter in 1981 after throwing his then-wife off a ninth floor balcony in Wolverhampton.

Eleven years later he strangled a second partner with a belt at their home in London and pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility because of depression and a personality disorder.

But he was detained in a psychiatric hospital for just two years and met Ms Best shortly after he was released into the community.

Johnson was due to stand trial for the murder of Ms Best, a grandmother and mother-of-four, but changed his plea to guilty at the last moment. He was taken into court in a wheelchair after a failed suicide bid left him disabled

He faces a life sentence when he comes back before the court on Friday.

His victim only found out about his previous killings when she found letters about them. Johnson was taken into court in a wheelchair after a failed suicide bid left him disabled

Prosecutor Mark Heywood said: 'This is a man who is controlling and violent to the women in his life and who, when crossed, will kill.'

Johnson, who was born in Jamaica and moved to the UK in 1980, started a relationship with Ms Best in 1995 - soon after he was released from his sentence for the second killing.

She was initially unaware of his previous convictions but later found letters revealing that Johnson had killed a previous partner and he admitted it was true.

Johnson was described by her children as abusive and controlling and he once punched her after she found out he had cheated on her.

Their relationship finally ended in the autumn 2016 and she started seeing another man.

Angela Best, Johnson's third victim, only found out about his past killings when she discovered some of his letters

Johnson tried to get her back and began stalking her near her home in Tottenham.

On 14 December she told her daughter that she was going to see Johnson the next day to accompany him to an appointment at the Jamaican embassy.

She is believed to have arrived at his home shortly after 9.19am and later that morning Ms Best's son Fabian Collins tried to ring her and got no answer.

That afternoon at around 3.23pm Johnson dived in front of a train at Cheshunt railway station but survived despite losing his right arm and his left forearm.

When police went round to his home in Dartmouth Park Hill, Upper Holloway, that evening they found the body of Ms Best lying on her back next to the sofa.

There was a dressing gown belt tied twice around her neck and a bloodstained silver metal hammer was lying on top of a rug.

A postmortem examination revealed she had been hit at least six times over the head with the hammer.

Ms Best was found dead at a flat in Dartmouth Park Hill, north London in December 2016

Johnson admitted murder at the start of his trial at the Old Bailey in London today

Mr Heywood said: 'She did nothing whatsoever to bring any violence in her direction: she had gone to his home to help him with an appointment he had that day.

'Instead of accepting her help the defendant set on her with brutal, merciless violence. He did it for a simple reason: after all that time she was no longer prepared to remain with him and his controlling ways.

'She had recently met another and began a new chapter in her life, seeing that other man. The defendant is someone who would rather that she did not live if that life was to be with anyone but him. And so, quite simply he killed her.'