Overview

• Mr Justice Derek Sweeting imposed a life term with a minimum of 20 years and told Headley he will die in prison.
• A Bristol Crown Court jury found Headley guilty of raping and strangling Louisa Dunne in June 1967 after nearly ten hours of deliberation.
• DNA recovered from Dunne’s preserved blue skirt matched Headley’s profile at a one-billion to one probability when tested in May 2024, and a 1967 palm print matched 25 characteristics of his print taken in November.
• Detectives had sealed key evidence in 1967 and reopened the case in 2023, leveraging modern DNA and palm-print analysis to secure the conviction.
• Authorities, including the National Crime Agency, are now examining Headley’s potential links to other unsolved offences from the 1960s and 1970s.