An obsessed man set up ‘secret surveillance equipment’ to spy on his flatmate before stabbing her to death, a court has been told.
Sheldon Rodrigues, 30, was reportedly angry that 39-year-old Stephanie Hansen had a married colleague and began a campaign to break up the relationship.
He bought spy equipment, used the name of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to send an insulting message via Facebook and complained to their employer, aviation company Swissport, jurors were told.
The situation is said to have come to a head when Rodrigues learned that freight agent Ms Hansen’s boyfriend had visited her while he was at work.
Shortly before 6am on December 30, Ms Hansen’s lover, father-of-three Celso Cabillan, left her home in Hayes, west London.
Shift worker Rodrigues had been at work the night before but listened in on the couple’s date on a Micromax phone hidden in the living room, it was claimed.
He arrived home at 6:50 a.m. and shortly afterwards ‘exploded with anger and attacked Mrs. Hansen,’ who was still in her pajamas in her bedroom, prosecutor Gareth Patterson KC said.
He told jurors: “She was stabbed several times in the neck. She was repeatedly struck on the head and face with a blunt object or objects. She suffered serious head injuries involving the use of severe force.”
Mr Patterson said the defendant denies being the killer but there is a “rich body of evidence” he is responsible.
After Rodrigues’ arrest, police discovered messages showing his “long-term obsession” with Ms Hansen, the court was told.
In 2015 he told her: “I want you” and she replied “no”, jurors heard.
In 2021, he wrote, “It hurts to see you every day knowing you’ll never like me,” to which she replied, “I do like you but just not enough.”
He did not appear to accept the rejection and offered to change clothes and undergo surgery to change his appearance, the court was told.
On one occasion he sent her a web link to a see-through ‘boob tube’ top which he said he would buy and sell for her, it was claimed.
She responded with the message “yuk”.
In April 2021, the couple moved into a house in Willenhall Drive, Hayes, to share bills.
Messages between them suggested there was some intimacy, but Ms Hansen only wanted to be friends.
She wrote: ‘I knew it was a mistake when we first went to bed. I should never have done it.”
The defendant begged for another chance and told her he would wait for her for fifty years, the jury was told.
Ms Hansen wrote: “All along you have been asking me to move in with you and ever since we did I have been wanting to move.”
In late 2022, Ms Hansen was in a relationship with Mr Cabillan, which left the defendant “angry”, the court was told.
Rodrigues, who worked as a freight agent at another company near Heathrow, used a telephone hidden in a television set as a listening device, Patterson said.
He listened to Ms Hansen for 158 hours while he was working or visiting India, where he was born, an average of three hours a day, it was claimed.
Last November, he allegedly emailed Swissport under a false name to complain that Mr Cabillan was “hanging around” and trying to have an “affair” with his partner.
He followed up with another email claiming employees were smoking cannabis at work.
Jurors were told he had purchased a ‘Spy Camera’ device which was later found in the house.
Mr Patterson said: “Investigations reveal that the suspect used this device to make secret recordings in the house, which once again reveals his ongoing obsession with Stephanie Hansen and his desire to monitor her relationship with her new boyfriend. ”
A secret listening device with a ‘spy plug’ was also found on a shelf in the suspect’s bedroom, the court was told.
On December 8, the defendant allegedly used the name Jamie Oliver to message Ms Hansen’s friend via Facebook that his girlfriend and child would be kidnapped, jurors heard.
Two days later he paid a man £100 to drive him around in a car and follow Mr Cabillan, it was claimed.
Mr Cabillan realized he was being followed and reported it to the police, but the defendant denied this.
On December 20, Rodrigues allegedly messaged Ms Hansen to say he had been a “psycho”.
But later that evening he searched the internet for ‘how to make a woman fall in love with him’, the court was told.
Jurors were shown CCTV footage of Mr Cabillan leaving Ms Hansen’s home in early December.
The defendant later claimed Mr Cabillan was the killer and wrote a letter to Swissport saying: “He murdered my housemate Stephanie Hansen the night he stayed at the house. I found her when I got home.
Mr Patterson said she was still alive after Mr Cabillan left, when she sent a series of text messages and used Siri on her phone.
She did not leave the house to go to Westfield shopping center as she had planned, and WhatsApp messages from Mr Cabillan after 7am went unread, jurors were told.
While Ms Hansen’s body lay in her bedroom, the defendant visited Boots for bandages for a “deep cut” on his hand, which he said he suffered from “housework”, the court heard.
The defendant began putting up a “false defence” by sending text messages to Ms Hansen’s phone asking where she was and pretending she was still in Westfield, it was claimed.
Mr Patterson said: ‘Of course he knew full well where she was, lying on the floor of her bedroom in that small house where he stayed for about 24 hours.
“Eventually he called the emergency services and pretended he had just found the body unexpectedly.”
Rodrigues allegedly lied to an officer at the scene by saying he had cut his hand while carving a chicken on Christmas Day, although more recent CCTV showed him giving a colleague a ‘high five’ at work.
A blood-stained hairdryer and a large fan with the defendant’s fingerprints on it were allegedly used to hit Ms Hansen, the jury was told.
Jurors were shown a photo of the victim’s bare legs with drops of the suspect’s blood on them.
It was claimed that the suspect’s DNA, most likely from semen, was found on her stomach.
Mr Patterson said: “The evidence of the injuries shows that this was a vicious attack, the number of knife wounds totaled 20 and the number of blunt wounds 39.”
Rodrigues, of Willenhall Drive, Hayes, west London, denies murder. The process continues.