LONDON: A 92-year-old British man was on Tuesday jailed for life for a 1967 rape and murder, in the UK’s oldest solved cold case.
Ryland Headley, who was convicted of raping and killing 75-year-old Louisa Dunne after breaking into her house nearly 60 years ago, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 20 years at Bristol Crown Court in southwest England.
After passing sentence, judge Derek Sweeting told Headley: “You will never be released, you will die in prison.”
He said that Headley, who was 34 at the time of the crime, had “violated the sanctity and safety of Mrs Dunne’s home where she had every right to feel secure.
“She must have experienced considerable pain and fear before her death.”
The judge mentioned Headley’s previous convictions for breaking into the homes of two elderly widows in 1977 and raping them.
He was initially sentenced to life in jail for those convictions, which was later reduced to seven years on appeal.
They showed “chilling pattern of behaviour”, the judge added.
Police reopened Dunne’s case in 2023 and matched DNA from the victim’s skirt and other items from the original probe to Headley, who spent around two years in prison sentence for his 1977 crimes.
Doughty Street Chambers, the legal team representing Headley, said it was Britain’s oldest cold case murder -- an unsolved case for which new information emerges.
