Overview

• Ryland Headley, now 92, pleaded not guilty at Bristol Crown Court to charges accusing him of raping and strangling 75-year-old Louisa Dunne in her Easton home in June 1967.
• In 2024, experts examined preserved semen on Dunne’s blue skirt and matched it to Headley’s DNA with a billion-to-one probability.
• Police also linked a palm print on an open sash window at the crime scene to Headley after comparing it with prints taken following his November 2024 arrest.
• Prosecutors introduced Headley’s 1977 convictions for raping two elderly women in Suffolk to show a history of targeting vulnerable victims.
• Headley denies having any recollection of visiting Dunne’s home or committing the offences and the trial is expected to last three weeks.