A 92-year-old man on Monday was convicted of the rape and homicide of a lady in southwestern England in what’s regarded as the U.Ok.’s longest-running chilly case ever to be solved.
A jury at Bristol crown court docket discovered Ryland Headley, then aged 34, responsible of attacking 75-year-old Louisa Dunne in June 1967.
“Louisa Dunne died in a horrifying assault carried out within the place the place she ought to have felt most secure — her own residence,” prosecutor Charlotte Ream mentioned. “For 58 years, this appalling crime went unsolved and Ryland Headley, the person we now know is accountable, averted justice.”
Dunne was discovered lifeless in her residence by a neighbor on June 28, 1967. The evening of her demise, neighbors reported listening to a lady’s “horrifying scream,” the BBC reported.
The reason for her demise was discovered to be strangulation and asphyxiation. She had additionally been raped.
It’s “one of many oldest chilly circumstances to ever be solved within the U.Ok.,” mentioned the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which brings legal prosecutions.
Investigators retained Dunne’s clothes, together with a blue skirt, and different samples from her physique for additional examination. Additionally they recovered a palm print from a window which Headley is believed to have used to achieve entry to her residence.
Avon and Somerset Police
Regardless of the efforts of police investigating Dunne’s demise 58 years in the past, no key suspect was recognized, the BBC reported. Police collected about 19,000 prints from males and boys on the time with no success.
In 2023, the case was reexamined and the skirt was despatched away for forensic testing in Might final 12 months. DNA recovered from the merchandise of clothes linked Headley to the homicide scene after his DNA was added to the nationwide database in 2012 for an unrelated incident.
Forensic scientists concluded that DNA from the skirt matched Headley’s and the palm print was additionally his. Headley was arrested at his residence in Suffolk in November.
Headley was convicted of two counts of rape within the late Nineteen Seventies, after he attacked ladies, aged 79 and 84, in Ipswich. He pleaded responsible to the costs in 1978 and was jailed for seven years.
All however one of many trial witnesses within the case died, in response to the CPS, so the prosecution needed to depend on written accounts taken from witnesses on the time of the homicide.
Testimonies of the 2 ladies had been learn throughout Headley’s 2025 trial.
“Listening to the voices of the victims of his 1977 offences, is simply extremely highly effective and harrowing,” mentioned Detective Inspector Dave Marchant, senior investigating officer for the case. “I believe it offers us an perception into in all probability what occurred inside 58 Britannia Highway (Dunne’s residence) to some extent.”
As a result of witnesses weren’t accessible to present proof in court docket, and subsequently couldn’t be challenged on that proof, their statements needed to be handled as rumour proof as a substitute, the CPS famous.
Dunne’s granddaughter Mary Dainton mentioned she was surprised when she heard that Headley had been arrested. “I accepted that some murders simply by no means get solved and a few folks should stay with that vacancy and unhappiness,” she mentioned.
Marchant mentioned he’s working with the Nationwide Crime Company to find out whether or not Headley could also be accountable for some other unsolved offenses through the years. “Crimes of this magnitude ought to by no means go unpunished and we are going to stay relentless in guaranteeing we do every part we are able to to advance different unsolved homicide circumstances within the Avon and Somerset space,” he mentioned.
Headley can be sentenced on Tuesday.
Avon and Somerset Police 
