Nikitta Grender was just 19 when she was brutally raped and murdered by Carl Whant. AILSA CHALK takes a look at the life of a young woman who loved partying but was delighted at the prospect of becoming a mum.

KNOWN as “Kitta” to her friends, Nikitta Grender was excitedly looking forward to the birth of her first child when her life was brutally cut short.

She and Ryan Mayes had met when they were in their early teens and were friends at first before getting together when he was 13 and she was 14.

Miss Grender and Mr Mayes “settled down” when he was about 16, moving into a flat together in Corporation Road, before Miss Grender, a former Hartridge High School pupil, fell pregnant.

Although their relationship had its ups and downs, the young couple were eagerly awaiting the birth of their first child, Kelsey- May, and moved to a flat in Broadmead Park, near to where Miss Grender’s parents lived, in September 2010.

Mr Mayes, 19, said their relationship improved after the move as they prepared the nursery for Kelsey-May’s arrival in February 2011.

He said: “It just improved, it went better.Wejust had ourselves and may have had one or two friends each. We wanted each other and didn’t want to go out drinking and finding other people.

We just kept ourselves to ourselves and stayed strong.”

The couple were “over the moon” to be expecting and Mr Mayes said the pregnancy had gone “perfect”. Had it not been for the horrific events of the early hours of February 5, 2011, there is nothing to say Kelsey-May wouldn’t have been born healthy.

On February 3 Mr Mayes had the day off and went shopping with Miss Grender, his mother, brother and uncle, before going back to his mother’s house.

Miss Grender’s friend, Jenna Allman, then picked her up to go out for the evening, before Whant picked MrMayes up. The couple then met later in the car park of Matalan in Newport, when Miss Grender got out of Miss Allman’s car to talk to Mr Mayes.

She leaned into the window and kissed him before they left with their separate groups of friends.

At around the time when Mr Mayes and Miss Grender got together, Mr Mayes began to form a bond with his older second cousin, Carl Whant, who was described as “like a brother” to him.

Although Mr Mayes and Whant were close, Miss Grender did not like him and believed he was a bad influence on her boyfriend.

Mr Mayes said: “She didn’t like Carl because I spent a lot of time with him. Maybe she was a bit jealous. She just couldn’t like him.

The way he came across to her, she didn’t like that. She didn’t like what he was about or what he liked doing.”

He said Whant wasn’t allowed in the flat he shared with Miss Grender most of the time, and on the rare occasion he was Miss Grender wouldn’t speak to him.

In a statement read to the court, Miss Grender’s mother, Marcia Grender, said she knew her daughter did not like Whant.

She said: “She didn’t like the fact he didn’t seem to care about his partner and children. Nikitta didn’t like the fact Carl Whant did not pass her messages on to Ryan. She sent text messages to him as Ryan lost his phone. She did not like the fact whenever Carl Whant said ‘jump’ Ryan would.”

Miss Grender’s mother said that after she fell pregnant, Miss Grender’s normal daily routine would be to get up around 1pm, have something to eat and do the housework. She said her daughter would always clear up dirty glasses straight away, not wanting to leave them lying around. She didn’t smoke and only drank small amounts of alcohol. During her pregnancy she mostly wore pyjama trousers, as it was in those she felt most comfortable.

The court heard Miss Grender saw her mother most days, popping around to her parents’ house when they got home from work, and was at their house the night before she died. Her parents, Marcia Grender and Paul Brunnock, and younger brother, Luke, lived just around the corner from Miss Grender’s flat.

Her mother said Miss Grender came to their house at around 6.50pm on February 4, 2011, dressed in black pyjamas with white spots raised from the material and a blue McKenzie top in shellsuit style.

She left around 7.30pm to take her dog, Missy, home and go out with her friend, Jenna Allman, and that was the last time her parents saw her alive.

Miss Grender spent the evening of February 4, 2011, driving around with Miss Allman and another friend, Joshua Mason.

The friends then spent the evening driving around car parks in the Bowlplex and Asda in Cwmbran and Spytty Retail Park and Asda, in Pill, in Miss Allman’s silver Vauxhall Corsa. They would drive to a car park, see who was there and chat to friends before driving on to another car park.

Miss Allman said she dropped Miss Grender home at around 1am and watched her go into her flat and close the door behind her before leaving.

In the days after Miss Grender’s body was discovered, her family released a tribute and appealed for information.

It said: “As a close family we are trying to come to terms with the tragic events which have led to the untimely death of our beautiful daughter Nikitta and granddaughter Kelsey- May.

“We wish to appeal for any persons with information to contact the police in an effort to find out why this has happened. We ask to be left alone at this time with Nikitta and Kelsey-May’s family to come to terms, if possible, with the tragic events which have taken our daughter and grandchild from us.”

Mr Mayes’ mother, Kerry Evans, said her son was “broken” by the tragedy. She said: “This baby was everything to them, the baby made them even closer. It’s just so tragic, I can’t see how he’s going to rebuild his life.”

She said the young couple had planned for the baby and the flat was ready for little Kelsey-May’s arrival.

Miss Evans said the “childhood sweethearts”

loved each other “absolutely”.

“If they could keep the rain off each other they would,”

she said.

Following Miss Grender’s death, friends paid tribute to the “fun-loving”

teen who was “over the moon” at becoming a mother for the first time.

Childhood friend Jenna White, who knew Miss Grender for 12 years, said: “She was lovely, a party girl who was up for a laugh and she’ll be missed by a lot of people.

She was looking forward to being a mum. When she told me she was having a girl she was over the moon.”

Another friend, Shanna Slade, said Miss Grender wanted to be a model. She said: “She would have been a beautiful model, she would have been a beautiful mother.”

Hundreds of people left tributes on social networking site Facebook, including Mr Mayes, who left a moving message about their baby girl, Kelsey-May.

He said: “Heya my angel so glad that I seen our little girl today she was beautiful she had ur eyes my hair and our nose who ever have done this bbe they are going to get caught for what they dne angel.

“Im missin u every second bth of u made my world n that world cnt be put bk together because of som sick horrible person sleep tight my angels spk to u tomoz xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx”

Miss Grender and her daughter were buried on March 9, 2011.

Around 500 mourners packed St John’s Church in Maindee to remember the mum-to-be, all wearing something pink in tribute to her.