A 31-year-old man murdered an 18-year-old woman to silence her after she rejected his sexual advances and left her partially naked body in a town millpond, a judge has ruled.
Lewis Haines, an oil refinery worker, punched and strangled Lily Sullivan before pushing her into the water in Pembroke, south-west Wales, hours after meeting her in a nightclub.
Haines admitted murdering Sullivan but denied it was a sexually motivated attack, though his victim’s body was naked from the waist up and her crop top was found on the pond bank.
However, after a fact-finding hearing at Swansea crown court, Judge Thomas said he was sure Haines tried to force himself on Sullivan and, when she resisted, murdered her to try to make sure she could not tell anyone, including his long-term partner.
Haines will be jailed for life on Friday, when his minimum term will be set.
The pair met for the first time at the Out nightclub in Pembroke on the evening of 16 December last year. In the early hours of the next morning they left the club and Haines shepherded Sullivan to an unlit, secluded alley leading to the millpond.
A friend of Sullivan shouted at Haines: “What are you doing? You’ve got a girlfriend …and she’s only 18.”
The judge said the pair kissed and cuddled but Haines wanted to have sex. He said: “I am sure Lily decided she was going home. Fuelled as he was by drink, I am sure Mr Haines was frustrated by this. He became forceful; she resisted. I am sure that Lily did not remove her own top voluntarily. I am sure that Mr Haines took it off her before he put her in the pond.
“My firm view is that when he got forceful Lily did say that she would complain that he had tried to force himself upon her.”
The judge said Haines knew that people including his partner would be angry and he killed the teenager because he “couldn’t risk her surviving”.
Sullivan’s mother, Anna Sullivan, was speaking to her daughter on the phone as the attack began and the line went dead, the court heard. At about that time someone who lived nearby heard a woman scream. Anna Sullivan tried to call back 30 times but there was no reply. Grainy CCTV footage of the alley showed Sullivan’s phone lighting up repeatedly as her mother tried to contact her.
Anna Sullivan began searching for her daughter and saw the killer walk from the scene, not knowing what had happened.
Haines returned to his home in the village of Lamphey and told his partner: “I have strangled somebody. They are in the millpond.”
Haines later told his mother: “Sorry mum, I have strangled a girl and she is in the pond.” His stepfather phoned the police and Sullivan’s body was found face down in the water. The teenager’s handbag was found in the pond with a large clump of hair in the zip and her blood was found in the alley.
In his defence statement, Haines admitted strangling Sullivan but said he had tried to get her out of the pond. However, the judge said he did not make a “genuine attempt” to do so, pointing out that he had not called for help.
