Lascelles Allen pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Suraiya Gangaram, a mother of three young girls, who were sent to foster care after her murder.
TORONTO – A Toronto man who fatally stabbed his ex-girlfriend, leaving her bloodied body on the kitchen floor for her children to find, was sentenced to life imprisonment Tuesday with no parole eligibility for 18 years.
Lascelles Allen, 54, was supposed to stand trial for first-degree murder but instead pleaded guilty in December to the second-degree murder of Suraiya Gangaram, 31, a mother of three young girls.
The pair’s romantic involvement ended in August 2014 when Allen was charged by police with assaulting her. He was released on a recognizance to a surety and ordered not to have any contact with Gangaram, according to an agreed statement of facts.
Despite the court order, they continued to have contact although Gangaram had begun a new relationship with another man.
On the evening of May 7, 2015, Allen and Gangaram and her three daughters went to see a musical. They returned to her home on Danzig St. in Scarborough and Gangaram went out with her new boyfriend, leaving Allen to mind the girls.
The next day, while they were at school, Allen stabbed Gangaram multiple times in the chest. He also committed an indignity to her body that Superior Court Justice John McMahon called degrading and “heinous.”
Later that afternoon, Allen threw himself in front of a VIA rail train at a nearby GO station, severing his lower legs.
Police found evidence that Allen was planning a violent act.
