UK: 92-year-old man jailed for life over murder, rape committed in 1967

A 92-year-old man, Ryland Headley was on Tuesday jailed for life over a 1967 rape and murder, in a case considered UK’s oldest solved cold case.

Headley 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.

Giving the sentence at Bristol Crown Court in southwest England, Judge Derek Sweeting told Headley: “You will never be released, you will die in prison.”

He said that Ryland 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.”

Sweeting told the court that Headley had been planning to rape Mrs Dunne when he broke into her home and “brutally” attacked her.

Louisa Dunne was a “vulnerable” elderly woman who lived alone, the court heard.

“The nature of these offences demonstrates a complete disregard for human life and dignity.

“Mrs Dunne was vulnerable, she was a small elderly woman living alone. You treated her as a means to an end.

“The violation of her home, her body and ultimately her life was a pitiless and cruel act by a depraved man.

“You may not have intended to kill, but you did rape her and you brutally attacked her,” he said.

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.

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.

Mrs Dunne’s granddaughter, Mary Dainton, took to the witness box to give a victim impact statement. She spoke about the “far-reaching” devastation left by Headley’s actions.

She said that it fell to her to “speak for the people who are no longer here”.

Dainton told the court that people “withdrew” from her family when they found out about the circumstances of her death.

She said: “I have struggled emotionally in ways I did not anticipate.

“There is a stigma attached to rape and murder.

“It has turned my life upside down. I feel sad and very tired, which has affected the relationships I have with those close to me.

“It saddens me deeply that all the people who knew and loved Louisa are not here to see that justice is being done.”

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