"Oh shut up, silly woman," said the reptile with a grin, "you knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.."

The Ministry of Justice has apologised to the mother of a five-year-old boy who was murdered after probation services failed to warn her that her partner had a string of convictions for violent offences against women and children.

I'm sure that came as a hell of a shock.

After Iheanacho was found guilty of murder, Breha, 30, was horrified to hear that he had a string of previous convictions for violent offences against women and children.

“It took them 15 minutes to read out all his previous offences. My mouth literally dropped open and I felt so sick,” said Breha.

How terrible, to think the man you thought you knew was...

Wait, hang on. How did she meet him?

While Breha knew that Iheanacho had recently come out of prison, she was unaware of the terms of his licence relating to children and new relationships with women.

“If anyone had told me about Marvyn’s violent history I would have run a mile from him and would never have allowed him to be anywhere near my child,” said Breha.

Ummm...

Breha said she first met Iheanacho when he was in prison.

“A neighbour suggested I write to him,” she said. “I wasn’t looking for a relationship but when I met him he was super-shy and super-polite. He seemed really nice and I felt sorry for him. I didn’t know what he had been in prison for, he just told me he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. I thought, ‘well, anyone can make a mistake’.

You sure made one, didn't you? Nice to know you have standards; a jailbird's perfectly fine, but a violent one, well, 'someone should have told me!'

“I sat by his hospital bedside singing Ukrainian songs to him. When the doctors said they couldn’t do anything more for him I literally dropped to the floor,” said Breha.

“How could Marvyn have done this to a little boy who had no chance to defend himself against this big guy? Each day it gets harder and harder and I miss him more. The worst thing is to wake up every morning knowing that your son is dead.”

I'd have thought the worst thing was realising you're to blame, because you valued a screw with a 'bad boy' more than you did your own child's life.

After the death of her British-born son, Liliya Breha was warned she could be deported because she no longer has a family tie to the UK.

Good. We have enough home-grown women who love the bad boys like this, we've no need to import more.