A Heathrow Airport worker, who was dubbed the Love Bug Killer after using a listening device to record his housemate’s ‘most intimate moments’ and then murdering her in jealous rage, has been jailed for life.
Sheldon Rodrigues, 30, was living with Stephanie Hansen, 39, in Hayes, west London ten years after ending a brief relationship.
Ms Hansen was not interested in her housemate romantically but Rodrigues remained obsessed and was furious when she started an affair with married airport warehouseman Celso Cabillan.
Rodrigues set up an old phone in their front room, as well as a bug in Hansen’s bedroom, as recording devices and spent more than 100 hours, the equivalent of almost one week, tuning in while working as a cargo agent for American Airlines at Heathrow and when he was on holiday to his native Goa.
An enraged Rodrigues tried to get Mr Cabillan, who he worked with at Swissport, fired from his work by emailing his boss from India.
Heathrow Airport worker Sheldon Rodrigues (pictured), 30, who was dubbed the Love Bug Killer after using a listening device to record his housemate’s ‘most intimate moments’ and then murdering her in jealous rage, has been jailed for life
He was living with Stephanie Hansen (pictured), 39, in Hayes, west London ten years after ending a brief relationship
The jealous airport worker also followed him home one day from work.
Rodrigues sent shocking threats to Hansen’s new lover, who she had met while working as a cargo agent for Swissport, including a message threatening to ‘hunt you down and destroy you’ – but pretending it was from Mr Cabillan’s wife.
He also put a chilling image of The Joker on his Facebook page with the caption: ‘We stop looking for monsters under our bed when we realise they’re inside us.’
On the night of Ms Hansen’s death, her housemate spent an entire nightshift listening in to the couple having sex on the bug in the living room, with CCTV showing him fiddling with his earphones or touching his phone over 300 times.
The Old Bailey that she was so noisy during intercourse that she could have been heard anywhere in the house.
As he left work on his bike at 6am, Rodrigues stopped to listen in on the bug once more with his ‘blood boiling’.
When he returned, Mr Cabillan had gone home to his wife and three children but Ms Hansen was still in bed.
Rodrigues rushed into the room and stabbed her at least 20 times with a kitchen knife before battering her with a tower fan and her hairdyer.
The obsessed airport worker then spent more than 24 hours in the house with the body, ordering pizza and watching TV before eventually calling the police and attempting to frame Mr Cabillan.
Rodrigues sent shocking threats to Hansen’s new lover, who she had met while working as a cargo agent for Swissport, including a message threatening to ‘hunt you down and destroy you’ – but pretending it was from Mr Cabillan’s wife
Rodrigues rushed into her room and stabbed her at least 20 times with a kitchen knife before battering her with a tower fan and her hairdyer
Officers found traces of DNA on her lower stomach likely to have come from her semen.
Rodrigues’s blood was later found on her leg.
Rodrigues told the operator: ‘I have just found my housemate’s body.
‘I have just been in her room. I have found her in there.
‘I think her boyfriend has done something to her.
‘He stayed here two nights ago.
‘There is blood spattered all over the room as well.’
After he was charged Rodrigues wrote a letter to his employers from his cell, telling them to investigate his rival.
Rodrigues was convicted of murder by an Old Bailey jury in January.
Ms Hansen’s family atttended court in pink clothes, the victim’s favourite colour.
In a moving victim statement mother Glenda said: ‘Stephanie is gone and I am broken hearted, she is my precious sweet girl, the feeling of loss is unimaginable, the pain and sorrow knowing I will never talk to her, hold her again, this is a pain I will have to live with everyday.
‘She was a unique person, she had no barriers with regard to class and colour.
‘She spent spare time cleaning up paths and lakes, she wanted to make the world a better place for others.
‘She had her whole life ahead of her, and she looked forward to getting married and having children.’
She told Rodrigues: ‘Stephanie introduced you to our family as a friend she had known for many years, Stephanie trusted you and in turn, we trusted you.
‘I felt content knowing Stephanie had you around.
‘Stephanie was a private person but your refusal to admit guilt made us sit through weeks of torment and made us hear your lies.’
Her brother Russel Hansen said: ‘I spent 20 years of my life serving my country and in doing so I have been to some of the most dangerous countries on the planet.
‘When I was younger, Stephanie protected me.
‘Despite my job, I could not do the same for her.
‘People keep telling me time will heal, but I don’t believe that.’
Judge Judy Khan, KC, sentenced Rodrigues to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years to cheers from the public gallery.
He told the killer: ‘As a result of your actions, Stephanie Hansen has been deprived of a promising future.
‘Members of her family have been here throughout the trial and are here today.
After he was charged Rodrigues wrote a letter to his employers from his cell, telling them to investigate his rival
‘They have behaved with conspicuous dignity throughout.’
The court heard Rodrigues was an introverted computer nerd who loved fiddling with phones and gadgets.
Ms Hansen was a popular and vivacious Chelsea fan who was passionate about the environment and collected cuddly hedgehogs.
After his relationship with Ms Hansen ended in 2014, Rodrigues’ only sexual partner was the used blow-up doll police found in his room.
He was so obsessed with Ms Hansen that he would sit outside the bathroom door cross legged when she was having a bath, begging to come in.
When Ms Hansen went to see her parents in Cambridge for Christmas and forgot to take a £3 hat she had bought for her mother’s dog, Rodrigues jumped on a train to bring it from London.
He bombarded her with hundreds of whining text messages begging for a relationship or to have sex ‘one last time’.
But even though she had been on holiday to Greece with him earlier in the year, Ms Hansen made it clear she wanted nothing to do with him.
Rodrigues even offered to have plastic surgery to change his appearance so that she would find him more attractive.
He was paranoid about his penis size and asked Ms Hansen if she was seeing him because he had a ‘bigger one than me.’
The pair moved into a house together in April 2022.
He had also put a chilling image of The Joker on his Facebook page with the caption: ‘We stop looking for monsters under our bed when we realise they’re inside us’
Rodrigues denied being obsessed and said he was using the bugs to listening out for burglars because Ms Hansen would often leave the door unlocked.
He denied but was convicted of murder.
Rodrigues stared blankly during the hearing and showed no trace of emotion as he was led to the cells.