{"id":21381,"date":"2022-03-11T10:59:33","date_gmt":"2022-03-11T15:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=21381"},"modified":"2022-03-11T10:59:33","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T15:59:33","slug":"anthony-russell-triple-killer-given-whole-life-prison-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2022\/03\/11\/anthony-russell-triple-killer-given-whole-life-prison-sentence\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Russell: Triple killer given whole-life prison sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A triple killer, who raped a pregnant woman moments before strangling her, has been sentenced to a whole-life prison term.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Anthony Russell, 39, murdered Julie Williams, her son David Williams and Nicole McGregor, whose body was found in woodland near Leamington Spa.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Sentencing Russell in his absence a judge described him as “exceptionally dangerous and manipulative”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He had admitted the murders during a week-long spree in October 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A jury also found him guilty of rape on Thursday after a retrial at Warwick Crown Court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The jury heard he had assaulted Ms McGregor, who was five months pregnant, just hours after she showed him a picture of her baby scan.<\/p>\n

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Mr Justice Wall told the court that whole-life orders were only for “exceptionally serious” cases.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“I have no doubt that this is a case which falls fairly and squarely within the description,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Each [of the deaths] was the result of a separate murderous act which was sustained and brutal.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“You will remain in custody for the rest or your life and will never be eligible to apply to the parole board for your release.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The court heard Russell, described as a “rather sad and pathetic individual” by his own barrister, had refused to attend the sentencing hearing on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Attempts to get him in a prison van resulted in staff being put in “situations of danger,” the court was told.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Strangled with lanyard<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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West Midlands Police said it believed Mr Williams, 32, was killed due to Russell’s “mistaken belief that he was in a relationship with his girlfriend”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Russell, of Riley Square, Coventry strangled him on 21 October with a lanyard, before leaving the body under his bed, where it was found five days later with 87 injuries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He then strangled Mr Williams’ 58-year-old mother in an attack which saw him inflict 113 separate injuries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Officers suspect Russell “confessed to David’s killing” and “then killed Julie to stop her from speaking to the police”, said Det Supt Shaun Edwards of West Midlands Police.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Nicole<\/span><\/div>
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Police said there was no known link between Russell and Nicole McGregor<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Ms McGregor’s body was discovered in woods on 29 October, three days after she was strangled by Russell in Newbold Comyn.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Lured into woodland<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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The court heard that just three hours after meeting Russell the 31-year-old had agreed to walk into the woodland with him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We suggest that the defendant lured Nicole on to the Comyn, not for sex but more likely for drugs,” said prosecutor Zoe Johnson QC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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After the murder, heroin-user Russell pretended to help Ms McGregor’s partner look for her.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The court heard he had told her partner, the baby’s father, “I bet you can’t wait for it to be born”, despite knowing he had raped and killed her.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A victim impact statement read to the court from Ms McGregor’s mother Maggie, said the death had “destroyed” her family.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“[Nicole] was caring, she was kind and behind her barriers, she had a heart of gold.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A statement from Julie Williams’ sister Carol said: “Sentencing will not bring our family back but we hope it will stop the defendant from committing these evil crimes on any more families.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"L-R<\/span><\/div>
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Julie Williams and her son, David Williams, were found dead at separate addresses<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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The three deaths prompted one of the biggest manhunts in recent years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Russell fled Leamington by attacking and stealing a car from a 78-year-old man.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He was eventually arrested after police spotted the stolen Ford C-Max parked on a road near Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, and found Russell on the back seat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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During sentencing, the judge described Russell as “a man prepared to use very significant violence on anyone”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“You are exceptionally dangerous to those who know you, and those who do not.<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A triple killer, who raped a pregnant woman moments before strangling her, has been sentenced to a whole-life prison term. Anthony Russell, 39, murdered Julie Williams, her son David Williams and Nicole McGregor, whose body […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[8336,5873,8335,6145],"class_list":{"0":"post-21381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-uk","9":"tag-anthony-russell","10":"tag-coventry","11":"tag-leamington-spa","12":"tag-warwick-crown-court","13":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21381"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21385,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21381\/revisions\/21385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}