Bravery of frenzied hammer attack victim

By David Cohen - Standard.co.uk

September 1, 2009

Kara Hoyte had just emerged from a three-day coma when the man who had attempted to murder her walked brazenly into her intensive care unit at the Royal London Hospital. As Kara caught sight of her six-foot attacker striding towards her bed, she recoiled in horror and began to scream: "It's him who tried to kill me! Get him away from me!"

But no sound came out. Although 19-year-old Kara had miraculously survived the frenzied hammer attack that had cracked open her skull like an egg, the damage to her brain was so severe that she would be unable to speak for the next nine months.

She was helpless. Like a scene in a horror movie, she was forced to watch in mute terror as her unsuspecting mother, Eunice Lander, turned to greet Mario Celaire, Kara's former boyfriend and a professional footballer for Maidstone United. Unbeknown to Kara, Celaire had visited while she was still in a coma, and after hearing that doctors had given her 24 hours to live, had promised Eunice: "We'll find out who did this to her."

Now her would-be killer was back, and as Kara painfully tried to turn her battered face away from the man who had left her for dead in her Leytonstone bedsit, he took her hand and whispered: "You know everything's going to be all right, don't you?"

But Celaire, 32, of Jamaican descent and from south London, had not counted on Kara's courage and determination in bringing her assailant to justice. Her mother had the idea of writing down questions with "yes" or "no" answers that Kara, partially paralysed by the assault, could point to. "Do you know who attacked you?" she asked. Kara pointed to "yes". One by one, Eunice listed every person Kara knew, but Kara kept indicating "no" with mounting frustration. Then Eunice wrote down Mario Celaire, a man she regarded as a "perfect gentleman" and least suspected, and Kara started frantically hitting the board.

Kara's testimony led to Celaire being jailed for life at the High Court this summer. But it was not only for her attempted murder in 2007 that he was convicted. When she was finally well enough to talk painstakingly to detectives a full nine months after her attack, she had a surprise in store: Celaire, she said, had not only tried to kill her, but had also admitted to "mistakenly" killing a previous girlfriend, Cassandra McDermott, 19, in 2001, a case for which he'd since been acquitted. It would lead to his retrial under new "double jeopardy" legislation that, since 2003, allows someone to be prosecuted again where "compelling new evidence" exists.

The police hailed Kara as a hero. "Her bravery and determination to give evidence against Celaire, despite receiving near-fatal head injuries, was astonishing," said Detective Chief Inspector Nick Scola, who led the investigation. "It is her strength that has helped bring justice to Cassandra's family."

But beyond the steps of the High Court, Kara, an attractive, spirited young woman, has been fighting a valiant personal battle to recover from her horrific injuries. Speaking to the Evening Standard at her mother's terraced house in east London in her first interview since the court case, Kara, now 21 and the eldest of five children, says: "Some days are better than others. I get frustrated because I understand people perfectly, but the damage to my brain means I can't always express myself. The doctors told my mother that I would not talk or walk properly again, but in the last two years I have made such progress that I've surprised everyone."

Kara has moments of perfect lucidity but she also becomes easily exhausted and she spends much of our meeting curled up on the sofa alongside her mother who frequently speaks on her behalf. "The damage to Kara's head has left her with aphasia, a language disorder which means that what leaves her brain is not always what comes out of her mouth and she often says things back to front," Eunice says. "She also suffers semi-paralysis to the right side of her body which means she can't use her right arm and her right leg is dead so she walks by throwing her hip and with the aid of a walking stick."

The ordeal has changed mother and daughter's life irrevocably. Before the attack, Eunice, 46, worked as a finance officer for Waltham Forest council and Kara was an aspiring model who managed a hair salon. Now Eunice has given up her job to become Kara's full-time carer. "It's a privilege to look after her," says Eunice. "I think she is amazing. I am very proud of her."

Kara gives her mum an affectionate squeeze and adds: "The hardest part is that I can't go to work and then out clubbing with my friends. I was a normal teenager." She looks wistful. "It seems such a long time ago."

Kara was attacked on a Saturday night when she returned to her housing-association ground-floor flat after a long day in the salon. It was around 11pm, she would later recall, when her boyfriend, Junior Clarke, 20, phoned to say he'd be over in 20 minutes. When her buzzer went, she thought it was Junior, but instead it was Mario Celaire, her first boyfriend, whom she'd dated at 15, standing in the doorway. Kara had long since ended their relationship but he'd refused to accept it, constantly calling and asking her out, and now he vociferously demanded she join him for a night on the town.

When Kara declined, he made to let himself out, but as she turned her back, he suddenly grabbed a hammer she kept by the door and smashed her over the head. Medical reports would show that as she lay there, he continued to beat her head with such ferocity that her skull split open and bits of bone became embedded in her brain.

Minutes later Junior arrived and started knocking on the door. The light was on but Kara was not opening. Through the letterbox, he could make out her feet and hear her moaning, so he sprinted round the back to let himself in through the open window. Oddly, this time the light was out. A neighbour would later say they saw Celaire, who must have been hiding in the corner of the room, running to his Mercedes and driving off. When Junior turned on the light, he saw Kara covered in blood and frantically called 999.

"I will always consider Junior to be my hero for saving my life," says Kara. "If he hadn't arrived, I would have bled to death." They are still in regular phone contact, she adds, but they are no longer a couple. "It's not realistic," she smiles. "I accept that. Junior is away at college and I am still convalescing."

It was six months before Kara could leave hospital and nine months before she was able to recount what happened to the police. She would tell them how she had one day stumbled across court papers relating to Celaire's original trial for Cassandra McDermott's death, and that he'd admitted that he'd killed her. But he had said he had not meant to do it, and she had believed him.

It would later emerge in court that Celaire had punched Cassandra, knocking her out and callously leaving her to choke to death on her own vomit. What Kara also did not know was that as a 15-year-old, Celaire had raped an under-age girl with special needs, an offence for which he'd served four years in prison and had been placed on the sex offenders' register. Celaire would maintain his innocence until just before his trial was due to begin, certain that Kara would be too cowed to face him in court, and he only changed his plea to guilty when it became clear that she was not going to back down.

At the July trial, Kara faced Celaire for the first time since the attack. Was it difficult? "I was very, very angry," Kara says. "But I felt like a lioness. I was determined to bring him to justice. I stood three feet away and stared straight at him, but he didn't flinch or make eye contact and just looked straight ahead."

A letter from Kara to Celaire was read out in court. "I don't hate you, I pity you," it said. "I will get better and better with each day and stronger. You have only damaged my shell. I am still the same determined and strong person I always was. I leave here today free with the whole world at my feet. You, on the other hand, have a long time to reflect and to understand you cannot control another person."

Two and a half years after the attack, Kara is determined to lead a normal life again. "There are still loads of things I can't do that make me feel intensely frustrated," she says. "But I am no longer on medication and with the help of regular physiotherapy and acupuncture, I am able to walk now, although not great distances. I am also hoping to retrain by doing an IT course, and my speech is improving month by month."

As Kara talks, Eunice tenderly strokes her feet causing her to giggle and protest that it tickles. "A few months ago, Kara had no feeling in her right foot, so it shows how things are improving. Kara has also developed a relationship with Cassandra's mother, Jennifer, who bought Kara a silver Tiffany necklace when they met after the trial. Jennifer said that they could never thank her enough for bringing their daughter's killer to justice."

"I have paid a heavy price," says Kara, smiling ruefully. "But life has taught me that I'm a survivor. The hardest lesson is patience. I am learning to take each day as it comes."