Julia James, 53, who was killed while walking her dog on April 27 last year (Kent Police/PA)
(Picture: PA Media)A man has been found guilty of the murder of police community support officer Julia James while she was walking her dog in woodland.
Callum Wheeler, 22, from Aylesham in Kent has been found guilty at Canterbury Crown Court of the murder of the PCSO in Snowdown in April last year.
The court heard he used a railway jack, a tool used to lift train tracks, to beat the mother-of-two to death as she walked her dog in fields and woodland near her home in Kent.
Speaking outside court, her tearful husband Paul James paid tribute to his wife, saying he was “so proud” of all the people she had helped in her work, particularly victims of domestic violence.
Mr James said: “She just helped everybody, she just couldn’t do enough.”
He went on: “She was just amazing, I was so proud of her. The work she did was just amazing, to help so many other people, women who were in danger from men, bad men.”
He told reporters: “I just hurt so much.”
Her daughter Bethan Coles said the wait for the guilty verdict “has been a long time coming”.
She told reporters outside court it has been like an “out of body experience sometimes to be hearing these awful things and it to be your mum”.
She added: “But we needed to see Callum Wheeler in that room and for him to be stood and be held accountable for what it is that he’s done.”
Wheeler had been seen roaming around the countryside with the weapon the day before the 53-year-old died, and in the days after as hundreds of police officers scoured the area for clues.
On arrest, Wheeler told officers “sometimes I do things that I cannot control” and “you can’t go into the woods and expect to be safe”.
He also told a member of police staff he would return to the woodland and rape and kill a woman, and that Mrs James deserved to die.
On Monday afternoon, a jury of eight women and four men at Canterbury Crown Court took less than one hour and 10 minutes to find him guilty of her murder.
Wheeler, who is being held at Broadmoor high security psychiatric hospital in Berkshire, did not react when the guilty verdict was delivered.
When asked to stand to hear the verdict, Wheeler did not stand himself but was instead held up by members of staff in the dock.
He did not walk into the dock on Monday morning or after lunch, but was instead carried in.
Mrs James was off duty on the afternoon of April 27 last year, and was walking her dog, a Jack Russell called Toby, near Ackholt Wood when she was killed.
Detectives used data from her Apple watch to find out where she had walked and when, and pinpoint where she was attacked.
Data showed that her heart rate and walking pace spiked at the point it is believed she spotted Wheeler in the woodland, and changed her route home in a bid to escape.
She had seen him in the same location before, and had described him to her husband Paul as “a really weird dude”.
But, in an unexplained outburst of violence, Wheeler, who lived in nearby Aylesham, beat her to death and walked away.
He had no connection to the mother-of-two, and offered no explanation for what he had done when questioned by the police.
Detective Superintendent Gavin Moss, who led the hunt to find Mrs James’ killer, said the case was particularly poignant for the force.
He said: “The death of Julia had real ramifications throughout the whole organisation, because she was one of our own.
“What needed to happen was that justice needed to prevail, and we needed to do what we did to catch Callum Wheeler, who was a particularly dangerous individual.
“He caused her catastrophic injuries.”
Witnesses were able to provide vital images of Wheeler near the scene, including gamekeeper Gavin Tucker who took a video clip and photo of him walking around with the murder weapon still in his bag the day after he killed Julia.
When the image of Wheeler was released to the public, he was identified within hours and arrested.
