A loner who ambushed an off-duty police community support officer as she walked her dog in woodland in southern England has been jailed for life for her murder.
Callum Wheeler, 22, used a railway jack to beat Julia James, 53, to death in Ackholt Wood, near her home in the former coal-mining village of Snowdown in Kent.
Mr. Justice Wall, sentencing him to a minimum of 37 years in jail, told him: “You were there with the intention of attacking someone. I’m driven on the evidence this was not a spur-of-the-moment aberration, rather an attack that was planned in advance.”
Wheeler—who lived with his father in nearby Aylesham—was convicted of murder in May, after the jury deliberated for just over an hour, but his sentencing was adjourned for psychiatric reports.
Canterbury Crown Court heard Wheeler was assessed at Broadmoor high security psychiatric but the judge said there “was no clear evidence” linking his psychological disorder with the offence.
On Friday he was handcuffed and hauled into court by hospital staff before prosecutor Alison Morgan, QC, said: “Julia James was brutally attacked and murdered by this defendant while she was out walking her dog. He ambushed Julia. He inflicted multiple blows to her head, which caused catastrophic injuries.”
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Paul James gave a victim impact statement on Friday in which he said: “My hopes and dreams were taken. I truly felt I died too. My life has been jolted by the devastation and trauma. We went everywhere together. How do I do these things alone? My life is now empty. I want to know why this has happened. I cannot and still do not sleep at night. What do I do without her?”
After he was arrested Wheeler told police: “Sometimes I do things that I cannot control,” and added: “You can’t go into the woods and expect to be safe.”
He also she had deserved to die and that he planned to return to the woods and rape a woman.
The trial heard James was walking her Jack Russell dog, Toby, on April 27 last year when Wheeler approached her.
Data from her Apple watch showed her heart rate speeding up as she sought to escape from him and then suddenly stopping.
