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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Valerie Graves: Romanian man admits 2013 house-sitter murder | Valerie Graves: Romanian man admits 2013 house-sitter murder |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| A Romanian man has pleaded guilty to the murder of a grandmother who was bludgeoned to death six years ago. | A Romanian man has pleaded guilty to the murder of a grandmother who was bludgeoned to death six years ago. |
| Valerie Graves, 55, was killed in a burglary-gone-wrong at a property in Smugglers Lane, Bosham, West Sussex, on 30 December 2013. | |
| At Lewes Crown Court, 27-year-old Cristian Sabou, of Dej, Romania, admitted murder and was jailed for life with a minimum of 23 years. | At Lewes Crown Court, 27-year-old Cristian Sabou, of Dej, Romania, admitted murder and was jailed for life with a minimum of 23 years. |
| Ms Graves had been house-sitting for friends when she was killed. | Ms Graves had been house-sitting for friends when she was killed. |
| Prosecutor Philip Bennetts QC told the court that Sabou had entered the house as a would-be burglar, expecting it to be empty having been told a safe in the house contained a large amount of cash and ingots. | |
| 'Extreme force' | |
| Sabou had done jobs for the homeowners in the previous couple of months, he told the court. | |
| When he entered the home he found Ms Graves, and attacked her. | |
| Sabou struck her with a hammer, causing horrific injuries to her head as she tried to defend herself, Mr Bennetts said. | |
| "The level of force used was extreme. Not dissimilar from the forces experienced during road traffic collisions." | |
| Sentencing Sabou, Judge Christine Laing QC said: "Rather than simply running away in the hope you could not be identified by a woman waking from sleep you conducted this horrific attack on Ms Graves. | |
| "It was your dishonesty and greed that took you to the house. It was your cowardice and lack of morality that caused you to kill Valerie Graves." | |
| She told him he would serve a minimum term of 23 years and 272 days. | |
| Ms Graves was a mother of two who was living in the Scottish Borders before moving to West Sussex to be nearer to family. | |
| In a statement, her family said: "We have had to endure six years of waiting, not knowing if anyone would ever be brought to justice for this cowardly act. | |
| "Val, our mum, was very much loved by our family and is sorely missed by all of us. She was a kind and caring person who had little conflict in her life. Her murder was incomprehensible to us all. | |
| "Sadly, Val's mother passed away never knowing that justice has been served." | |
| Ms Graves was last seen alive at about 22:00 GMT on 29 December and was found in the ground-floor bedroom of the luxury £1.6 million property where she was house-sitting. | |
| A post-mortem examination found she had sustained severe head injuries after being hit with a claw hammer, probably around midnight. | |
| Officers found the weapon 600 metres from the house in Hoe Lane. | |
| Forensic analysis of DNA from the scene established the suspect was male but no match was found. | |
| In 2015 Sussex Police launched its biggest voluntary mass DNA screening in the force's history, asking all men aged over 17 who live, work or visit Bosham to provide a DNA sample to eliminate them from the inquiry. | |
| Almost 3,000 samples were taken. | |
| Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk. | Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk. |