Jealous health worker doused lover in petrol and set her alight

A jealous psychiatric nurse who turned his lover into a ‘zombie’ by dousing her in petrol and setting her alight has today (Friday) been struck off.

Aiah Tondoneh, 44, of Shoot Up Hill, Cricklewood, was is serving life in Belmarsh Prison for the brutal slaying of 50-year-old Donna Drepaul, after she returned home late from a meeting with another man.

She was so severely disfigured that people mistakenly thought she was a white man, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) heard.

The NMC panel ruled that he was fitness to practice was impaired by reason of his conviction.

Striking him off the register, panel chair, Winsome Levy, said: “We have no doubt that the facts of the conviction were extremely grave.

“The horrific nature of the murder means Mr Tondoneh is fundamentally incompatible with remaining on the register.

“If he was not struck off, it would seriously undermine public confidence in the profession.”

During Tondoneh’s Old Bailey trial jurors heard Ms Drepaul suffered 50-60 per cent burns to her face and upper body and multiple organ failure following the attack on July 2, 2010.

Shea died two days later.

Ms Drepaul, ‘a well-liked’ senior staff nurse at University College Hospital in central London, met Tondoneh while he was employed at Highgate Mental Health Unit in north London.

Tondoneh was married but had been seeing Ms Drepaul for about four years.

At the time of her death, she was trying to end their relationship because of his jealousy.

He was captured on CCTV buying petrol from a local station before he went on to attack Ms Drepaul at her flat in Finsbury Park, north London.

Tondoneh, who qualified as a mental health nurse in March 1999, did not engage with the NMC process.