UK NEWS

QUEUE RAGE WOMAN ACCUSED OF MURDER

HANDCUFFS: Antoinette Richardson

Saturday June 14,2008

By Cyril Dixon

The girlfriend of a man accused of murdering shopper Kevin Tripp appeared in court yesterday on the same charge.

Antoinette Richardson is alleged to have killed Mr Tripp, 57, with her lover Tony Virasami after a queue-jumping row in a Sainsbury’s store.

Richardson, 37, wept as magistrates in Sutton, south London, remanded her in custody.

Wearing a white top, blue jeans and black nail varnish, the jobless grandmother sobbed “please don’t”.

But chairman of the bench Derek Cock ruled she should be held in custody until September 18.

She is due to appear again at the Old Bailey alongside Virasami, 37, with whom she shares a flat in Catford, south-east London.

He had been remanded in custody 24 hours earlier.

Mr Tripp, a father-of-one, died after he was punched at the store in Merton, south London, on Tuesday.

It is alleged he was mistaken for another man who was earlier said to have barged into the checkout queue in front of a woman. She called her boyfriend who is said to have attacked Mr Tripp by mistake.

Mr Tripp, who suffered from ME and weighed just nine stone despite being 6ft tall, fell and died a day later in hospital.

His distraught family spoke yesterday for the first time of the “great dad” they had lost.

His partner Josephine James, 50, said: “I never thought this could happen. I still cannot believe he has gone. Kev was a lovely man, a great dad, a wonderful brother.

“He will be so, so missed by all who knew him.”