David Tiley 64

Description

A rapist freed early from prison murdered his disabled fiance after she taunted him about his criminal past.

Over a week later, with her body locked in an upstairs bedroom, David Tiley raped and killed her carer.

Tiley, 47, carried out a sickening sexual assault on his fiance Susan Hale before stabbing her in the head and chest.

Despite him being under police supervision, the murder went undetected as he continued to live as normal.

He then raped and stabbed carer Sarah Merritt, a married mother of two, when she arrived for a routine visit.

Tiley served a six-year sentence for rape in 1995 and was subsequently jailed three times for failing to tell police of his whereabouts as a sex offender.

He killed Mrs Hale and Mrs Merritt two months after being released early from his latest ten-month sentence.

Hampshire Police yesterday announced that an independent review of their procedures us under way after Tiley admitted both murders and was jailed for life.

Mr Justice Irwin told him he would never be released, adding: "The brutality and evil of what you did defies adequate description."

Tiley met Mrs Hale, who suffered from cerebellar ataxia - a rare degenerative brain disorder which caused her difficulties in walking - at an amusement arcade in Southampton last year.

He moved in with the 49-year- old mother-of-five, but was jailed last August for failing to tell police of his change of address. After his early release in January, the couple became engaged.

But on the evening of March 7, Tiley bludgeoned her in the head with a hammer after she taunted him about "something in his past", Winchester Crown Court was told.

Nick Hawkins, prosecuting, said Tiley then bound Mrs Hale's ankles and wrists with dressing gown cords before committing a serious sexual assault.

He then stabbed her four times, twice in the head and twice in the chest, before watching her die. Pathologists said she would have died "rapidly, but not immediately".

After covering her body with a duvet, Tiley turned on a fan to keep the bedroom cool and sprayed deodorant under the door to mask the smell of decomposition.

He then carried on his life as normal, visiting the amusement arcade and local shops. He also used Mrs Hale's mobile phone to send text messages to her friends.

Eight days later, 39-year-old Mrs Merritt made a routine visit to bathe Mrs Hale. Tiley brandished a knife, bound her wrists with material and told her Mrs Hale was dead.

He then took her bank card, demanded her PIN and left her gagged and bound while he went out to withdraw 150 from her account.

On his return, he removed the gag and "had a conversation" with the terrified woman while he smoked two cigarettes.

When she began to cry, he became angry, tore off her clothes and raped her before stabbing her twice in the neck with the same six-inch kitchen knife he had used to kill Mrs Hale.

Tiley was arrested two days later in Swanage, Dorset, where he was sleeping rough.

Mrs Merritt's 41-year-old husband Peter told the court he drove to Mrs Hale's flat when his wife failed to return home. Police were later called and made the grim discovery of the two bodies.

Shaking with emotion, Mr Merritt described how his family had been devastated by his wife's murder.

Tattooed Tiley sat impassively as Mr Merritt said: "Sarah didn't do anything to deserve such an end to her life. I now know what it means to be truly heartbroken.

"I cannot get the thought out of my mind of how scared and so very afraid she must have been that day and that I could do nothing to help her in her hour of need."

Mrs Hale's son David Chopra said his mother had been robbed of a natural, peaceful ending to her life.

Hampshire Police said Tiley had been considered a low or medium risk, but "short of 24-hour surveillance" there could be no guarantees that such a man could be prevented from reoffending.