The family of a woman strangled to death by a killer who used her Facebook account to chat up her friends said they suffer nightmares as a result of his crimes.
Tony Brooks, 36, used an HDMI cable to kill Kirstie Ellis, 35, and left her home looking like a “house of horrors”.
He later accessed her Facebook page and assumed her identity to tell her friends she was safe — and to ask if they would date him.
Brooks later told police where her body was but claimed she had been killed by two other people, before pleading guilty before his trial.
When police arrived at Kirstie's home in Leeds, officers found her stripped naked in the bath, with just a blanket over her body, and a lint roller and socks forced down her throat.
Speaking at his sentencing today, Kirstie's sister Hannah Kitson said: “Her human rights and her dignity were stripped from her, all why her supposed boyfriend went about his life, carried on like nothing had happened, profited from our devastating loss.
"I will never forget the sinking feeling in my stomach hearing the way you violated her and left her in such a horrific state, violated her body as she lay there dying, just to make yourself feel better, just to confirm that she was actually dead.
"The fact that you willingly went in and out of the scene of the crime, back to where her decomposing body laid, taking whatever you could find to sell for your own gain is disgusting.
"You turned her house into a true house of horrors.
“Kirsty was such a loving and caring person. She had a heart of gold that she shared with everyone she possibly could.
“Every night I have nightmares of what you did and how you hurt her."
Christopher Moran KC, prosecuting, said Brooks had known Kirstie for roughly two months before he murdered her on February 1, 2020.
He was driven to the property by Bethany Wood, who he was dating, and attacked her in the living room before strangling her as she washed away her injuries in her bath.
He said: "The table could have been used as a weapon.
“The pathologist later found the use of a such weapon was consistent with two lacerations found on Ms Ellis's head.
"There was blood staining on the kitchen floor which was consistent with Ms Ellis having fallen on it and laid on it - and moved around the kitchen floor while bleeding.
"The deceased was laid face up in the bath with her head laid towards the right-hand side of it.
"There was a bloodied tied mark in the bath, demonstrating that at one point, the bath had water in it, which had been diluted by her blood.
"Her head was covered in blood and it was clear she had been there for quite some time as her face had become grey and decomposition had begun.
"Officers could see two ligatures intertwined around her neck, and the handle of a lint roller, which could be seen protruding from her neck.
Bethany Wood, who drove Brooks to the address in early February, later told police he emerged with a flat screen TV, with blood spattered on his hands and trainer.
She told police that he said he had "beaten" up a male who owed him money and took the TV because he was "skint".
Over the following seven weeks Brooks returned to the property, where he stole Kirstie's sound bar speaker system, a fridge-freezer and later her bank card, withdrawing hundreds in cash.
The court also heard he showed the woman a photo of blood staining on the wall of the property, which the prosecution said he kept as a "keepsake" or "memento".
Brooks went on to access Kirstie's Facebook account, which the prosecution said he used to urge her friends to participate in "sexual liaisons" with him.
Mr Moran said: "He used this account to contact other random females, pretending to be Ms Ellis, requesting if any of them would like to meet her partner.
“These messages were sexual in nature."
Defending, Abdul Iqbal KC said the defendant had wished to "apologise to the family and friends" of Kirstie, adding that nothing he could say could "mitigate" their loss.
Sentencing him to 24 years and 9 months in prison, his honour judge Bayliss dismissed this suggestion and said he had denied her any decency "even in death."
He said: "Your apologies for your actions and insist that you are remorseful.
"You are nothing of the sort. I'm quite sure that your expressions of remorse are disingenuous
"You left her body to decompose. You denied her any dignity or decency even in death."
