A man who murdered a police community support officer as she walked her dog in woods near her home in Kent has been jailed for life.
Callum Wheeler, 22, used a railway jack to beat married mother of two Julia James to death as she walked in Ackholt Wood near the back of her home in Snowdown on 27 April last year.
He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 37 years for the “brutal and vicious” attack on the 53-year-old, which a judge said was sexually motivated.
Sentencing Wheeler at Canterbury Crown Court today, Mr Justice Wall told him: “Your actions have not just served to end the one life prematurely but have also destroyed the lives of the whole of her family.
“I am drawn on the evidence to the obvious conclusion that this was a not a spur of the moment aberration by you.
“You were there looking for a lone female victim and you were sexually motivated to do so.”
Wheeler showed no emotion as he was escorted down to the cells in front of his victim’s family, including her husband Paul James, daughter Bethan Coles and son Patrick Davies.
Wheeler, who was 21 and unemployed at the time of the killing, was seen roaming around the countryside with the murder weapon the day before Ms James’s death 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 that he would return to the woodland and rape and kill a woman, and that Ms James had deserved to die.
During the trial, prosecutor Alison Morgan QC told the jury Wheeler had visited the spot near where Ms James was attacked at least four times before her death.
Jurors were told that Ms James had seen Wheeler three times in Ackholt Wood in the months before her death.
Ms James was found dead on the edge of a field near the wood at about 4pm on 27 April 2021.
Prosecutors believe Wheeler was in the woodland at about 2pm, while Ms James left her home with her Jack Russell dog Toby at 2.12pm.
The last message she sent on her phone was at 2.25pm, shortly after she got to the wooded area.
Her Apple smartwatch showed she took her usual route before her heart rate spiked at 2.30pm and she took a sudden detour out of the woodland area and along the side of a field.
There was no movement after 2.35pm and her last heart rate was recorded at 2.43pm.
The prosecution alleged Ms James “ran for her life” to escape her attacker and was chased before she was bludgeoned to death with the 97cm-long cylindrical bar used to lift train tracks.
Police seized the metal railway jack from Wheeler’s bedroom after he was arrested. Forensic experts later found Ms James’s DNA on the tool.
Ms James suffered a broken left wrist from where she either tripped and fell or was knocked to the ground, as well as catastrophic head injuries.
A post-mortem examination of her body found no signs of “sustained or violent sexual assault”.
However, Wheeler’s DNA was found on the left breast of Ms James’s white vest top, which she was wearing beneath a jumper and a raincoat.
Mr Davies said his mother’s life had been taken because of a “twisted individual’s strange desires”.
He said: “He should never see the light of day again. Why should he?
“My mum only wanted to walk her dog but had her life ended by that disgusting creature.”
Ms James’s daughter told how their mother’s murder had given them a “life sentence”.
“To lose my own parent, the woman I loved the most in the world, is truly awful,” she said. “To know how she was brutally attacked in broad daylight having run for her life is horrific.
“It haunts me every day of my life.”
Ms James’s husband repeatedly broke down in tears as he told how “my life was finally complete when I married my soulmate”.
“My hopes and dreams were taken,” he said. “I actually felt I died too.”
Additional reporting by Press Association
