News
‘You’ll die in prison,’ judge tells man, 90, convicted 58 years after rape, murder
BREAKING: 92-year-old man to die in prison, 58 years after rape, murder
Ryland Headley, a 92-year-old man is to die in prison as punishment for the murder he committed some 58 years ago, when he was just 34, in a damning verdict handed him on Tuesday by a court in the UK.
Derek Sweeting, a judge in Bristol Crown Court in South-West England, who passed the sentence, pointedly told nonagenarian that he would die in prison for the heinous crime, believed to be the UK’s oldest solved cold case.
“You will never be released, you will die in prison,” Sweeting told Headley, who was convicted of raping and killing 75-year-old Louisa Dunne after breaking into her house nearly 60 years ago, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 20 years.
The court agreed that the old man, who was 34 at the time of the crime, had “violated the sanctity and safety of Mrs Dunne’s home where she had every right to feel secure. She must have experienced considerable pain and fear before her death.”
The judge, who also mentioned Headley’s previous convictions for breaking into the homes of two elderly widows in 1977 and raping them, for which he was initially sentenced to life in jail, but later reduced to seven years on appeal, said they showed “chilling pattern of behaviour.”
Police which had initially reached a blind alley at the time of the crime, finally nailed the convict with new evidence after reopening the case in 2023 and matched DNA from the victim’s skirt and other items from the original probe to Headley.
But hitting a breakthrough in the case, described by Doughty Street Chambers, the legal team representing Headley, said was Britain’s oldest cold case murder, new information pointed to the convict, as the forensic DNA evidence the police sealed away for half a century, after reaching a dead-end, were later proven to match Headley’s palm print following further testing.
Reports say, during the initial investigation, police had found a left-hand palm print from Dunne’s home, where she was found dead from strangulation, which they compared to 19,000 men to no avail at the time, when Headley was a railway worker who lived just outside the area in which men and boys were asked to give prints.
When Headley was arrested at his home last November, he told detectives: “I don’t know what you are talking about. Very strange, very strange.
But Charlotte Ream of the Crown Prosecution Service, who affirmed the crime argued differently, saying: “For 58 years, this appalling crime went unsolved and Ryland Headley, the man we now know is responsible, avoided justice.”
Mary Dainton, Dunne’s granddaughter, who told the court the murder had a “far-reaching effect” on her family, added: “I feel it falls to me to speak for the people who are no longer here.”
Earlier, Dainton said: “I was just 20 years old when my grandmother died and I’m now almost the same age as she was when she was killed.”
Police maintain they were looking into other possible cold cases Headley could be linked to, with Dave Marchant, of Avon and Somerset Police, saying on Monday: “Ryland Headley has now been convicted of three rapes of elderly women within their own addresses, and in the case of Louisa Dunne, her murder as well. I think there’s every possibility that there are other offences out there –- over the 60s, 70s, however long a time period –- which Mr Headley could be culpable for.”
Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Governor of Oyo State, on Thursday, finally threw his hats into the ring by declaring his intention to run for president in 2027, with a message – history beckons.
The governor, whose ambition has been a matter of speculations for months now and who had teamed up with forces angling to force President Bola Tinubu, out of power, told a teeming crowd in Ibadan on Thursday that time had come to reset Nigeria.
At a mega-rally to announce the alliance between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and the Allied Peoples’ Movement, (APM), Makinde, expressed worry over the dwindling fortunes of Nigerians, vowing to engage Nigerians to end the drift.
Hear him: “Without a multi-party system, there is no democracy. Where is our multi-party? Where do we go from here? We have been pushed to the wall.
“They calculated and self-opposition cannot unite but I am here to say that the opposition is the everyday Nigerian. This is the time for all us to ensure Nigeria works for us. This is the time to confront it fears. It is time to engage as citizens and not spectators.
“For the opposition political parties, this is the time to unite and work in unity and give our nation the much reset it needs. The time to reset Nigeria is now. Ibadan is the city of warriors. The first grand alliance is formed. The PDP and APM is formed. This handshake will allow us to field candidates from presidency to state Assembly. And so, I declare my candidacy for office of the president of Nigeria.”
Eyo Ekpe, a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), on Wednesday, gave a detailed account on how operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) manhandled him on Monday.
He told reporters that he was at sea on why he should fall victim to the assault against his person and eventually arrested given that was not right person directly involved in the information the agency sought.
Some operatives of the EFCC who invaded the hospital, had whisked Ekpe away after firing teargas to scare away the workers, patients and visitors to the hospital, following what appeared like a fracas the ensued over what it claimed was a routine duty in the facility.
Ekpe, Deputy Chairman of the hospital’s Medical Advisory Committee (MAC), described how an operative had first entered his office to make inquiries on why the hospital was yet to give a response to an EFCC inquiry over a medical report linked to a suspect facing trial.
He detailed how he briefed the operative that the said response was being prepared and even went ahead to show him the draft of a letter in that regard, which needed to go through the gamut of official endorsement before being released.
Hear him: “The head of that internal medicine department looked at the report and also discovered that the name of the doctor that signed the report is not a member of staff of that department.
“I had prepared prepared a response to the EFCC on Monday, May 11, 2026, based on the findings. When the EFCC operative visited my office the next morning to collect the document, I told him that the response was ready in draft. I even showed him the draft, but told him that the document still needed approval from the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital before it could be officially signed and released.
“He pretended to have accepted that. He left, but later later returned with another armed operative and informed me that I was under arrest. I asked him why. I was not the one that issued the medical report. My name is not on the medical report. The report was not issued from my unit.
“But he said I would get the answer when I get to their office. I then asked him to at least wait for my staff member who I sent on an errand before joining them. But they refused.
“They started pushing me. They dragged me out of the office. Then I began to cry while they were dragging me. They had warned me not to speak. They had taken my phone. My cry as they were dragging me, attracted the workers to the scene, who enquired what was going on, but because they ordered me not to speak, I couldn’t say anything. They had their guns.
The members of staff of the hospital initially blocked them from taking me away. They then made a call. After that I saw many masked and armed men came violently, broke the protector, threatening the people that were around and people ran away.
“They picked some staff that were still by me. they dragged me and other staff, five of us into their van downstairs. By that time they discovered that the gate of the hospital were locked. So, they drove towards the gate and packed and the commotion continued. We were inside the van.
“I was so emotionally and psychologically traumatised that I couldn’t even look out of the vehicle to see what was happening outside. But I know that teargas and live bullets were shot. That’s all I can say for now.”
Joyce Abdulmalik, of the Federal High Court, Abuja, heard on Wednesday, how Zenith Bank raised alarm over the huge transaction in one of its branches by Abubakar Malami, former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF-MoJ).
The bank said it immediately filed a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) in respect to the transactions, during its appearance in the ongoing trial of Malami, his wife, and son over allegation of massive looting of funds belonging to the Federal Government during his tenure.
Mashelia Bata, a compliance officer with the bank, who appeared as witness in the case, where Malami, et al, are facing a 16-count charge bordering on alleged money laundering to the tune of N8.7 billion, to which they pleaded not guilty, gave the testimony while being questioned on the bank’s roles in the matter.
Details of the testimony conveyed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), stated how the compliance officer who was cross-examined by Adebayo Adedeji, lawyer to the defendants admitted that the deposits in the account statements complied with the guidelines of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Arguments had stretched when Adedeji, opposed Jibrin Okutepa (SAN), lawyer to the EFCC, who had asked the witness to explain the meaning of a suspicious transaction report, stressing that there was no ambiguity in the term.
However, Okutepa, in response, maintained that section 215(3) of the Evidence Act did not preclude him from re-examining the witness while urging the court to allow the question for proper explanation.
After Abdulmalik, agreed and overruled Adedeji, the witness told the court that banks were required to alert the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) about fund deposits coming in a repetitive pattern, adding: “Any deposition of funds seen in a pattern or repetitive, you must escalate it to the NFIU.”
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