She choked to death in the early hours of the previous day after being beaten unconscious and left lying half-naked under a quilt in her mother's bedroom. There were signs of a violent and bloody struggle.

On 29 October 2002, The Croydon Advertiser reported thus:

"The mother of a teenage girl who died after being beaten up and left to choke in her own vomit has threatened to give up her career as a probation officer in protest against the criminal justice system. Distraught Jennifer McDermott, of Granville Gardens, Norbury, says she cannot accept that the person who killed her 19-year-old daughter Cassandra remains unidentified. The 51-year-old divorced mother-of-two, who worked for the probation service in Sutton from 1998 until Cassandra's death a year ago, said on Monday:

'I don't know if I can return to work for a criminal justice system that has let my family and I down so badly'...

Mrs McDermott said...

'We all feel so distressed and angry that a bright talented girl could die in such horrific circumstances and that no one is behind bars for it'...

Police said the attacker had been let into the house by Cassandra who was alone at the time. Her former boyfriend Mario Celaire, with whom she had a stormy four-year relationship, was charged with murder and manslaughter after he was caught on CCTV washing his clothes in a local YMCA laundrette, three hours after the time Cassandra was said to have died.

But Mr Celaire, 24, of Lansdowne Road, Croydon, was cleared of both charges by Old Bailey jurors a fortnight ago after telling them he had visited Cassandra on the night of her death but had left her 'alive and well'.

The defendant was not freed, however. He still has to finish serving a nine-month sentence for carrying an offensive weapon."

Mario Celaire: unusual name that.

Not many Mario Celaires knocking about in south London, I wouldn't have thought.

Cassandra had a "stormy" relationship with him.

He was seen washing his clothes at the YMCA three hours after Cassandra died.

He admitted visiting her on the night of her death.

He is criminally inclined: he has served time for carrying an offensive weapon.

Cassandra's murderer did not force his way into the house, she let him in, which suggests that they knew each other.

The police and the DPP thought Celaire did it.

So do I.

If you typed the name, Mario Celaire, into Google you wouldn't get anything coming up about Cassandra's murder, but you would get quite a bit of info about a professional footballer who plays for Maidstone United in the Kent League.

In the same area that Cassandra was killed.

This soccer player is the same age as the Mario Celaire whom the police thought had murdered Cassandra McDermott.

He might not be the same bloke,

Extraordinary coincidences do happen.

All I can be certain of is that this is the face of a soccer player who plies his trade in the Kent League.

                                                     

Unlike the Stephen Lawrence case, no questions were ever asked by our parliamentarians in the House of Commons and no Early Day Motions were introduced concerning the unsolved murder of Cassandra McDermott.

On 16 December 2007, Maidstone United defender, Mario McNish, was in a prison cell after being charged with the attempted murder of a 19-year-old girl in east London earlier in the year.

On 10 December 2007, the football club had released the following statement:

“During the summer Mario McNish was arrested for a serious offence that has taken a significant amount of time for the police to investigate. During that time, Maidstone United have supported the player, who has always been available for selection. However, the police investigation has now concluded and as a result, Mario has been charged. Therefore, with immediate effect, Mario will no longer be available for selection.”

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson, subsequently, said:

“Mario Celaire/McNish, aged 29 yrs, of Peckham Rye SE15, appeared at Waltham Forest magistrates’ court on Friday, December 7 charged with attempted murder of a 19-year-old woman. He was remanded in custody to appear at Central Criminal Court on December 20.”

McNish, who changed his name from Mario Celaire by deed poll in the summer of 2006, won the Maidstone fans’ player of the year award in their Kent League title-winning season of 2005-06 after signing from Beckenham Town.

He changed his name a little more than three months after the iamanenglishman web site and the accusatory information cited above his photograph went on line.

And the Old Bailey jury that freed Mario Celaire?

I wonder if there were any wannabe footballers' wives, ethnic sympathisers or Maidstone United fans deciding his fate that day in October 2002?

If that was the case, they freed him to kill again, didn't they?

Would this bother such people, do we think?

Shouldn't imagine so.