Serial rapist, 92, told he will die in jail after DNA link to 1967 murder

A serial rapist was told he will die in prison as he was jailed for the murder of an elderly widow nearly 60 years ago.

Ryland Headley, now 92, was convicted of attacking 75-year-old Louisa Dunne at her home in Bristol in what is thought to the oldest cold case ever to come to trial in the UK.

The body of the twice-widowed mother-of-two was found by neighbours after Headley, then a 34-year-old railway worker, forced his way inside the terraced house in the Easton area of the city before raping and strangling her.

Police found traces of semen and a palm print on one of the rear windows inside the house - but the technology that finally linked Headley to the crime would not become available for another 20 years.

The case remained unsolved for more than half a century until officers from Avon and Somerset Police sent off items from the original investigation and found a DNA match to Headley.

He had moved to Suffolk after the murder and served a prison sentence for raping two elderly women in 1977.

Headley, who did not give evidence, denied raping and murdering Ms Dunne, but was found guilty of both charges after a trial at Bristol Crown Court.

Passing sentence, the judge, Mr Justice Sweeting, said the crimes showed "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," he said.

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

"She must have experienced considerable pain and fear before her death."

Imposing a life sentence with a minimum term of 20 years, he told Headley: "You will never be released, you will die in prison."

The judge's sentencing remarks can be read in full at: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/r-...

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