Ryland Headley, 92, has been told he will die in prison after he was jailed at Bristol Crown Court for life with a minimum term of 20 years for the rape and murder of Louisa Dunne in 1967, in what is thought to be Britain’s oldest solved cold case.
He was found guilty of both charges by a jury at Bristol Crown Court on Monday afternoon, in what is thought to be the UK’s longest-running cold case to be solved. He was 34 when he forced open a window at the home of Louisa Dunne, 75, in the Easton area of Bristol in June 1967 before attacking her. Mrs Dunne, a mother of two, was found dead by neighbours in the front room of her terraced home in Britannia Road on the morning of June 28.
A pathologist concluded that Mrs Dunne died from asphyxia due to strangulation and pressure on her mouth, probably from a hand being held over it.
Bristol Constabulary, as the force was then, launched a huge investigation, taking the palm prints of 19,000 men and boys in an attempt to find a match to one left on an upstairs window.
However, the case remained unsolved for more than 50 years until Avon and Somerset Police detectives sent items from the original investigation for the first time for DNA testing.
Semen recovered from a blue skirt worn by Mrs Dunne matched Headley’s DNA to a ratio that meant it was a billion times more likely to be from him than anybody else.
When his left palm print was finally taken, in November last year, it matched the print left at the scene.
Since Mrs Dunne’s murder, Headley had moved his family to Ipswich, where he was jailed for raping two elderly women after forcing open windows at their homes in October 1977.
Headley, of Clarence Road, Ipswich, denied Mrs Dunne’s rape and murder but was found guilty by a jury after nine hours and 53 minutes of deliberations.
Mr Justice Sweeting will sentence him on Tuesday morning.