Judge Robert Linford, who is due to sentence Cody Ackland, 24, for the murder of 18-year-old Bobbi-Anne McLeod at Plymouth Crown Court on Thursday morning, has warned the case “will make very difficult listening”.
Ackland pleaded guilty at a hearing last month to snatching Miss McLeod from a bus stop in Leigham, Plymouth, in November 2021, but the full details of the crime have yet to be made public.
Judge Linford warned those present that “feel they cannot contain their emotions” should leave the court room, adding he may be forced to close the public gallery if there were any interruptions to proceedings.
Cody Ackland appeared in court in a checked flannel shirt over a navy blue sweater, wearing a short beard, flanked by three dock officers.
He spoke to confirm his identity and his date of birth.
Richard Posner, prosecuting, told the court Ackland was leading “a double life” and harboured a fascination with serial killers in the UK, Australia, US and Russia.
Mr Posner said Ackland had conducted extensive searches about “their crimes, the aftermath of such crimes, and the bodies left behind in days leading up to Bobbi-Anne (McLeod’s) death”.
He said he had also been searching the web pages of DIY stores for “hammers, crowbars and cutting tools”.
Bobbi-Anne McLeod’s mobile phone and Air Pods case was found at the bus stop where she was last seen, and her disappearance soon triggered a massive manhunt among her community.
Three days later, on Tuesday Cody Ackland, a guitarist in local band Rakuda, handed himself in at a Plymouth police station.
In the hours leading up to it, he sent Facebook messages to his band mates saying “love you guys”, something that was very out of character for him.
He sent further messages to his mother, saying: “Love you and love the children.”
At the police station, he told officers “I did it” and asked for a map so he could point out where he had dumped Miss McLeod’s body.
Bobbi-Anne McLeod was found later on the afternoon of Tuesday November 23, naked and face down about 15ft down a steep wooded embankment near the coastal beauty spot of Bovisand, a few miles up the coast of Plymouth.
She had died from multiple injuries to her head and face, which could only have been inflicted “during a prolonged and frenzied attack”, Plymouth Crown Court heard.
A forensic investigation of Ackland’s car found extensive blood staining throughout the vehicle, including in the footwell of the passenger seat, where he forced Ms McLeod when he first snatched her from the bus stop.
Strands of her hair were also found.
In a police interview, Ackland presented a prepared statement taking full responsibility for the murder of Bobbi-Anne McLeod, the court heard.
It said: “I am fully responsible for the death of Bobbi-Anne, I have never met her before Saturday evening and I did not know her name, I took her from the bus stop on Sheepstoor Road.”
I finished that there was “nothing sexual about this attack”, emphasising that he had not touched Miss McLeod sexually “in any way”.
In a later police interview, Ackland said “times in my childhood were difficult” adding that he suffered from poor mental health.
Richard Posner, prosecuting, said: “Ackland said he was ‘not good on his own, I over think stuff, the thoughts'”.
Ackland, in his interview, continued: “I thought you need to go out, I was watching TV and I thought you need to go out, I was watching TV and I thought I just need to get out and do something.”
The defendant told officers that a recent break-up was on his mind, and he had been driving into town, but as he passed groups of happy people it made his low mood worse.
The court heard that police found a trove of over 3,000 dark and disturbing images on Ackland’s phone.
Many of them were of the mutilated bodies of murder victims, as well as murder weapons, soiled and bloodied clothing, and the sites victims were found out.
He had conducted extensive searches on well-known serial killers, and held a particular fascination with US killer Ted Bundy, who confessed to 30 murders of young women in the US in the 1970s.
Ackland’s attack on Miss McLeod bore a striking resemblance to Bundy’s modus operandi, he approached her from behind and struck her with the hammer before bundling her into his car.
Ackland told police he had panicked when a still conscious Bobbi-Anne McLeod caught his eye when she fell to the floor.
“I did it again, I hit her again with the hammer and went to get back in the car and was going to drive away,” he said.
Ackland said “that was meant to be it” but as he returned to his car he saw Miss McLeod sit up and try to scream, adding: “I drove up to her and put her in the car.”
He described his reasoning as “an industrial way of thinking” adding “I just thought problem, right, get rid of the problem.”
Ackland said he had driven Ms McLeod 19 miles to Bellever Forest car park on Dartmoor and that she had still been able to walk when they arrived.
Ackland said he had lifted Bobbi-Anne McLeod and supported her as they walked towards woodland.
He said she had said something like “I am scared”.
Ackland told police: “I said (to Miss McLeod) so am I, I never done this, I’ve never seen this’, but I meant to say ‘I’ve never done this”.
He described striking her 12 times to the head with a hammer to the head and face, but she was still breathing.
Ackland said in interview: “It’s not funny but she started to make a noise and I thought ‘f****** hell, wow, I mean hats off to her’.”
He added that he had also trodden on her neck to suffocate her.
After killing Bobbi-Anne McLeod, Cody Ackland said he put her in the boot of his car, and thought “right you’ve solved part of the problem, now solve the rest of the problem”.
He stripped her of all her clothes and jewellery and drove her another 30 miles to the coastal beauty spot of Bovisand where he dumped her body down a wooded embankment.
Ackland dumped all her belongings and his own bloodied clothing on allotments in the village of Tamerton Foliot, north of Plymouth, threw the hammer in the River Tamar before returning home and going to bed.
The murder weapon has never been found.
On the Sunday afternoon, a day after killing Bobbi-Anne McLeod, Ackland was out socialising with friends, going for a pizza, joining rehearsal with his band Rakuda, before drinking into the small hours at a pub lock-in.
People who knew him well described him as “happier than usual”, saying the only time he was usually so joyful was when he was preparing for a gig.
He would later tell a psychiatrist the feelings of depression he had felt before murdering Miss McLeod had now gone and was not feeling the same resentment as before “as if this violent act had rid him of these feelings”.
Ray Tully QC, defending aspiring guitarist Cody Ackland for the murder of 18-year-old Bobbi-Anne McLeod, said hatred of his client was “a rightful emotion” for the victim’s family to feel.
Mr Tully said Ackland’s detailed description of the crime was “harrowing in its detail and difficult listening for any of us, let alone those who knew and loved the deceased”.
But he continued: “Some victims’ families never get to hear that, some perpetrators of offences choose to hide their terrible secrets and they never engage in at least divulging the true horror of what they have done.
“Some might think silence is better, I don’t profess to know – that will depend on the individual receiving the information as the whether they would rather know or not know.”
Mr Tully said Ackland has allowed those “who either want or need to hear it to do so”.
