A mother yesterday spoke of her anger that she only learned about her partner’s violent past after he beat her five-year-old son to death over a lost trainer.

Marvyn Iheanacho, 39, had a sickening history of violence, including six convictions for domestic abuse after he attacked five partners and a child.

Yet despite his appalling record, the burly thug with a terrifying temper was allowed to look after the boy after he embarked on a new relationship.

Iheanacho had been in a relationship with Lilya Breha, the mother of Alex (pictured together)

Marvyn Iheanacho (left) flew into a rage and subjected Alex Malcolm (right) to a brutal attack

A police photograph of notes written by Iheanacho in prison, under the heading 'mistakes'

He started going out with single mother Lilya Breha, who was never told by police he had just been released from prison for assaulting his fifth girlfriend.

On a trip to the park on November 20 last year, the jobless father-of-three lost his temper when his new partner’s son, Alex Malcolm, lost a trainer.

Iheanacho battered the little boy with such savagery that witnesses who overheard eight ‘booming’ blows initially thought two grown men were fighting. They heard the child begging for mercy, sobbing, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’

Instead of taking the dying boy to hospital only a five-minute walk away, Iheanacho carried him through the street before taking a cab to Miss Breha’s home in Bromley, South-East London, where he attacked her, throttling her as she tried to call 999.

One trainer that was found at the park (left) and another one found inside their home (right)

Iheanacho, who was known to Alex as 'Daddy Mills', admitted beating the boy before in a note

'He wants nothing more than a daddy': Note in Iheanacho's diary 'If I think about all my mistakes, shame takes over and I find myself overwhelmed in anger. 'My anger help me to push forward but fears helps me to fly high. Up up and away. 'Do I really love Alex, five years old small cute lil boy. 'Who want nothing more, than daddy mills to love him protect him but most of all keep him from harm - even though I had to beat him just now for sicking up in the cab - why why why I say - so the answer is yes yes yes I love him and like with all my heart but may not enough- I am real, faithful making money - so why ain't I happy?' Advertisement

When Miss Breha managed to raise the alarm two hours later, doctors were unable to save the youngster, who had 22 bruises from head to toe. He died two days later following a bleed to the brain.

Iheanacho had denied murder, but was convicted yesterday. A jury at Woolwich Crown Court took six hours to dismiss his story that Alex accidentally fell off his shoulders as he walked back from Mountsfield Park in Catford, South-East London. Iheanacho, of Hounslow, West London, will be sentenced on Tuesday.

Miss Breha only learned of his past during his trial. He had so many convictions it took prosecutors 15 minutes to read them out.

The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Police Act 2014 gave police the power to request a criminal behaviour order in cases of domestic violence, forcing offenders to tell officers every time they begin a relationship so police can warn new partners about them.

But Miss Breha, who had a five-month relationship with Iheanacho, was never contacted by police or made aware of his appalling past after they met through a mutual friend as he was being released from prison.

The red jacket worn by Alex on the day he was subjected to an attack that led to his death

Marvyn Iheanacho (left) was found guilty of battering the five-year-old boy to death in a park

Iheanacho (left) has a string of previous convictions for violent offences, including attacks on ex-partners and robbery. Ms Breha (right) nodded as the verdict was announced in court today

The incident took place in Mountsfield Park (pictured) in Hither Green, South East London

The Ukrainian mother, who occasionally left her son in Iheanacho’s care while she worked two jobs as a baby sitter and dog minder, wept as he was convicted.

‘It’s a joke,’ she said. ‘I just wish I’d known. I knew he had been in prison, but he said he was innocent. I had no idea about his past and the first time I heard about it I was disgusted. I was so shocked. I just felt sick.

'I didn't get to tell him I love him': Grief of boy's mother Lilya Breha 'Alex was so small but he was my strength and my purpose for living. 'The hardest thing I have ever had to hear was that my child died. I remember it like it was yesterday. ' Lying next to him in a hospital and praying that everything would be fine, that he will open his eyes. 'I didn't even get to tell him I love him. 'All I got was to put my hand on his chest and feel every single one of his final heartbeats.' Advertisement

‘I was so naive. He would come over and help Alex with homework. I trusted him. He had his own kids. I never imagined this would happen. Something should have been done with someone like that.’

Iheanacho’s first conviction for domestic violence dated back to the age of 19, when he punched a girlfriend in the face, kicked her in the ribs and stamped on her head after she refused to lend him £5.

In 2010, he battered another partner with a saucepan with such force that he dented the pan before dragging her around the kitchen by her hair and stamping on her face just because she would not let him borrow her car.

Iheanacho then turned on her 13-year-old son as he tried to save her, punching him in the face and kicking him in the head. Two years later he knocked another girlfriend unconscious by punching and kicking her in the head because she refused to lend him her phone.

In 2013 he throttled a fourth partner when she told him he could have a duplicate of his son’s birth certificate instead of the original.

In March last year he was jailed for whipping another girlfriend with a belt, grabbing her by the throat and shoving a bottle into her face just because she asked him to put something in the bin.

Miss Breha paid tribute to her son, saying: ‘We called him little angel. He was perfect. He was my best friend. He was my strength and my purpose for living. The hardest thing I have ever had to hear, was that my child died.’

Iheanacho, of Hounslow, West London, denied murder before the Woolwich Crown Court trial

Ms Breha said Alex had been her 'purpose for living' and she had been lying next to him in hospital with her hand on his chest, feeling 'every single one of his final heartbeats'