A 92-year-old British man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for a rape and murder that occurred in 1967, marking the resolution of the UK’s oldest cold case.
Ryland Headley was found guilty of breaking into the home of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne, whom he subsequently raped and murdered nearly six decades ago. At Bristol Crown Court in southwest England on Tuesday, he received a life sentence with a minimum term of 20 years.
After delivering the sentence, Judge Derek Sweeting told Headley: “You will never be released; you will die in prison.”
The judge highlighted that Headley, who was 34 at the time of the offence, had violated Mrs Dunne’s home—a place where she had every right to feel safe—and that she likely endured significant pain and fear before her death.
Judge Sweeting also referenced Headley’s prior convictions from 1977 for breaking into and raping two elderly widows. Although originally sentenced to life imprisonment for those crimes, his term was later reduced to seven years on appeal. These earlier offences demonstrated a “chilling pattern of behaviour,” the judge said.
The cold case was reopened by police in 2023, with forensic investigators matching DNA from items recovered during the original investigation, including evidence from Mrs Dunne’s skirt, to Headley. At the time of his arrest for the 1967 crime, Headley had already served approximately two years for his 1977 convictions.
Headley’s legal representatives from Doughty Street Chambers described this as Britain’s oldest cold case murder—a long-unsolved case reopened due to new evidence.
