Joy Morgan: Man jailed for at least 17 years for murdering missing student
Israel was described as "a thoroughly dishonest and manipulative man" by the prosecution.
Monday 5 August 2019 20:59, UK
A man has been convicted of murdering missing midwifery student Joy Morgan, whose body has never been found.
Shohfah-El Israel, whose birth name is Ajibola Shogbamimu, was convicted of Ms Morgan's murder at Reading Crown Court after a four-week trial and must serve at least 17 years.
Ms Morgan went missing in December 2018 when she was 20 years old.
She was last seen at a dinner on Boxing Day at the American-founded Israel United in Christ Church in Ilford, East London, where she was a regular.
Despite extensive police searches across hundreds of acres of land, her body has never been found.
During the opening statements of the trial, the prosecution's Mark Fenhalls QC said that Israel was "a thoroughly dishonest and manipulative man".
Israel and Ms Morgan spent time alone together, going against the strict instruction of their church, which prohibits women from being alone with men other than their husbands.
The married father lied when he was originally arrested, telling police that he had dropped Ms Morgan off at her student accommodation in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, after they attended the dinner on 26 December 2018.
Israel later admitted that he had actually spent two nights alone with Ms Morgan in his flat in Cricklewood, northwest London.
He said he lied to the police because he was concerned that he had broken church rules.
After he killed Ms Morgan, he also pretended that she was still alive by visiting her home in the days after she apparently went missing.
Keys to Ms Morgan's accommodation were found in the footwell of Israel's car after he was arrested in February.
Israel also attempted to cover his tracks by removing the University of Hertfordshire student's number from a church group on the Telegram messaging app.
Ms Morgan's phone was never found, however, a signal from it was detected in Israel's car in the Stevenage area on 28 December 2018.
It was at this point, the jury was told, that Israel was most likely "looking for somewhere to dispose of the body".
Israel denied having a sexual relationship with Ms Morgan, saying that he saw her as a daughter.
In a text sent from Israel to Ms Morgan in March 2018, he described her as an "amazing princess" and "a treasure that cannot be measured".
However, the jury was not shown text messages between Israel and other women, contacted both before and after Ms Morgan's death, some of which were directly quoted from chat-up manuals.
Israel also told the court that Ms Morgan had told him she wanted to leave the church.
But fellow worshippers cast doubt over Israel's claim, saying that she had found the "familial love" there that she had been craving.
Although church members said they were surprised that she appeared to have left, they did not report Ms Morgan missing.
It was her mother, Carol Morgan, who is not a member of the church, that reported her as missing in February 2019, six weeks after she was last seen.
The Israel United in Christ Church was founded in the United States in 2003 and was described as a strict organisation with a clear social hierarchy during the trial.
Men in the church were referred to as "soldier" or "officer". Women, meanwhile, were called simply "sisters".
The church's 44 US branches were included on a list of "black nationalist hate groups" in 2018 by the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which monitors hate and extremist organisations in the US.
The group's Twitter bio reads: "N*, Hispanics and Native Americans, You ARE the Children of ISRAEL. We made God angry, and he put us into slavery. It's time to come back to God."