After being found guilty of the rape and murder of a lady in Bristol 58 years ago, a 92-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 20 years.
Mr. Justice Sweeting, the sentencing judge, informed Ryland Headley that he would be imprisoned for the rest of his life for the 1967 murder of Louisa Dunne at her house.
Headley is supposed to be the oldest person in the UK to be found guilty of murder, and it is considered to be the longest cold case ever solved in the history of contemporary English policing.
After killing Dunne, who lived alone in the Easton area of Bristol, Headley left south-west England with his family and may have spent some time in London before moving to Ipswich in Suffolk.
In 1977, he raped two women, aged 79 and 84, in their homes in Ipswich. He was convicted and originally jailed for life, but at an appeal doctors told the court the rapes arose due to sexual frustration arising from his marriage to an “ambitious and demanding” wife. The sentence was reduced and he spent only about two years in jail.
Sweeting told Headley: “You will never be released – you will die in prison.”
He said Dunne was a mother of two and a widow who lived alone in her own home. He said she was born in 1892 and was involved in the labour movement but by the time she died she lived a “simple life” on her pension, with her treasured possessions, her books and deeds to her house.
The judge said Headley was a cruel, depraved, pitiless man who met Dunne’s screams with force. He said she must have suffered considerable pain and fear and he showed “complete disregard” for her life and dignity.
Sweeting said Headley must have thought he had evaded detection and had shown no remorse or shame, but the “diligent” work of police, the Crown Prosecution Service and forensic scientists had led to him being caught.
According to the judge, one “powerful aggravating factor” was the “intergenerational” consequences of the rape and murders.
The judge had to consider what Headley would have received if he had been apprehended in 1967 while determining the appropriate punishment.
The prosecutor, Anna Vigars KC, said that society had changed “radically.” According to her, the home secretary, not the trial judge, established the minimum penalties and the death penalty was still applied in the late 1960s for some really egregious offences.
However, she said that the minimum sentence for the kind of sexually charged murder for which Headley had been convicted was around 20 years, not the current 30-year minimum.
