Ryland Headley
A Bristol Crown court has convicted and sentenced Ryland Headley, a 92-year-old man, for killing a woman in 1967.
Seventy-five-year-old Louisa Dunne was found strangled on her living room floor by a neighbour on Britannia Road in Easton, Bristol, on June 28, 1967.
After Dunne’s death 58 years ago, no key suspect was identified.
According to a report by the BBC, police had collected about 19,000 prints from men and boys at the time with no success. They also conducted approximately 8,000 house-to-house inquiries and took 2,000 statements but had no leads, and the case later went cold.
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Avon and Somerset police’s major and statutory crime review team revisited Louisa Dunne’s evidence inventory in 2023.
Exhibits, including the skirt and samples of hairs taken from Dunne, were sent to a forensic scientist for examination.
The DNA profile on the victim’s skirt was uploaded on the national DNA database and matched that of Headley.
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In November 2024, Headley was arrested on suspicion of rape and murder at his home in Ipswich. He was charged but later denied the crimes.
On Monday, the jury found the suspect guilty of raping and murdering Dunne, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment on Tuesday.
During the sentencing, Derek Sweeting, presiding judge, told Headley, “You will never be released – you will die in prison.”
In 1977, Headley raped two women, aged 79 and 84, in their homes in Ipswich.
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He was convicted and originally jailed for life, but doctors told the court the rapes were due to sexual frustration arising from his marriage to an “ambitious and demanding” wife.
The sentence was reduced, and he spent only about two years in jail.
