Justice for Louisa Dunne and her family after 58 years as DNA evidence finally snares her brutal killer.
A 92-year-old man has been found guilty of rape and murder in what is believed to be Britain’s longest ever cold case conviction going back nearly 60 years.
Ryland Headley, from Ipswich, has today been found guilty of the horrific crime at Bristol crown court following a two week trial. His victim, Louisa Dunne, 75, who had been twice widowed and lived alone, was found dead in her front room in Easton, Bristol, by neighbours on the morning of June 28, 1967. Despite a massive police investigation at the time, including taking palm prints from 19,000 boys and men to compare against one found on an upstairs window at Mrs Dunne’s two-bedroom terraced home, no one was ever convicted of the horrific attack.
But detectives at the time had the foresight to box up evidence taken from the scene, as well from Mrs Dunne’s body at the city mortuary, and store it for over a half a century. Then last year, the blue skirt worn by Mrs Dunne when she died was forensically examined and a DNA match was made to a convicted rapist called Ryland Headley.
And today at Bristol Crown court Headley, from Ipswich, Suffolk, who declined to give evidence, was finally found guilty of Mrs Dunne’s brutal rape and murder. During the trial the court heard how evil Headley, then aged 34, forced entry into the home of the elderly Mrs Dunne and attacked her.
Neighbours told police a woman was heard screaming hours before Mrs Dunne, who had been twice widowed and lived alone, was found dead. Mrs Dunne, who was using the front room as a bedroom, was found lying on a pile of old clothes, although police found no evidence of any violent struggle in the house.
The trial heard a pathologist concluded Mrs Dunne died from asphyxia because of strangulation and pressure on the mouth. In 2023 items collected from the original investigation, including clothing and swabs, were sent for scientific investigation.
Forensic experts concluded the DNA recovered from a blue skirt worn by Mrs Dunne allegedly matched Headley to a ratio that meant it was one billion times more likely to be his DNA than that of someone else. A left hand palm print found on a window that had been forced open at Mrs Dunne’s home also allegedly matched the defendant, the jury was told.
Anna Vigars KC, prosecuting, told the jury in her closing speech that police in 1967 had “all of the clues but none of them” and were unable to identify a suspect. “But now there is a rather more complete picture, thanks mainly to the advances that modern science has made,” she said.
“It is now known that skirt has sperm from Ryland Headley.” When Headley was arrested at his home in Suffolk in November last year, on suspicion of murdering Mrs Dunne, he told detectives: “I don’t know what you are talking about. Very strange, very strange.”
The trial also heard Headley had been jailed for the rape of two elderly women in 1977, whose homes he had broken into, threatening them with violence if they did not comply. He also asked for a further 10 offences of overnight burglaries previously, to be taken into account when he was sentenced.
