When detectives got hold of a mobile phone belonging to a suspect after a brutal stabbing in St Helens, what they found stood out even compared with other murder cases.
A recording found on the phone was so disturbing, a top judge declared it "too shocking" to be played in court during the sentencing of the man who made it - 33-year-old Ian Robertson. Robertson had been arrested over the murder of Robert Sempey, 37, who found dead in the back garden of Robertson's home in Beilby Road, Haydock, on January 21, 2018.
His mutilated body was found partially covered with two old doors, and had been there for almost 48 hours. When officers seized Roberston's phone, he was left with little choice but to plead guilty to murder. Four years on from the court case, the ECHO looks back on a murder that shocked Merseyside.
