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Life sentences for lay-by killers | |
(20 minutes later) | |
Two people have been jailed for life for murdering a woman and dumping her battered body in a Gwynedd lay-by last year. | |
Christopher Reed, 40, will serve a minimum of 30 years while his former partner, Kathy Williams, 31, must serve at least 24 years for the murder. | |
They killed Lorraine Jones, 45, from Leeswood, near Mold, at their flat in Ellesmere Port in Cheshire. | |
Judge John Rogers said neither had shown "any hint of remorse". | |
The trial at Mold Crown Court heard how former hairdresser Ms Jones died after a drunken orgy. | |
"No mercy" | |
She had been beaten, stabbed and strangled, and her partly-clothed body was discovered dumped at a beauty spot near Bala in June. | |
Throughout the four-week trial, Williams and Reed blamed each other for the brutal killing - each claiming they had been asleep while the other murdered Ms Jones. | |
Sentencing them to life, Judge Rogers said: "The killing was carried out for your sadistic pleasure and sexual gratification. | |
"You showed Lorraine Jones no mercy in life and no respect in death. There has never been any hint of remorse from either of you. " | |
The trial heard how Ms Jones had been the victim of a "sustained and brutal attack," before she was dumped on rough ground near the A4212 Bala to Trawsfynydd road. | |
If you had chosen to obtain medical attention to her she would probably have survived Judge John Rogers QC | |
She had been dead for some time when she was discovered by walkers. | |
The divorcee, who had one teenage son, suffered multiple injuries to her head and upper body. | |
Peter Hughes QC, prosecuting, told the jury: "There was hardly a part of her body that had not been injured in some way or other and the injuries had been inflicted by a number of different means. | |
"She had been beaten, she had been stabbed, and it was subsequently discovered that she had been strangled." | "She had been beaten, she had been stabbed, and it was subsequently discovered that she had been strangled." |
The jury took more than six hours to unanimously convict Reed of the murder, then returned a few minutes later to convict Williams by a majority of 11 to one. | |
The judge described how they "carried out a prolonged and violent assault," on Ms Jones in June 15, 2006. | |
He said Ms Jones was still alive when they initially dumped her body in the yard behind their flat. | |
Lorraine Jones was beaten, stabbed and strangled, the court has heard | |
He added: "If you had chosen to obtain medical attention to her she would probably have survived. | |
"Instead of obtaining assistance, you retired to bed. | |
"The next morning when you arose to find her bloody and naked but still alive, lying in the yard, you dragged her back into the flat. | |
"Later that day you took her body and dumped her in a lay-by 60 miles away." | |
He branded Reed a dangerous man, who was fascinated by knives. | |
Williams, he said, was a violent person - although she had no previous convictions for violence, and had probably played a lesser role in the attack. | |
Reed also received a concurrent five-year sentence after admitting conspiring to pervert the course of justice by giving police false information and dumping the body. | |
Williams, who denied the same charge, was convicted and received a concurrent seven-year sentence. | |
The judge thanked the jury for their work and said he would excuse them from sitting again for ten years. |