92-Year-Old Man Jailed For Life Over 1967 Murder

LA 92-year-old man, Ryland Headley, was on Tuesday handed a life sentence for the brutal rape and murder of a 75-year-old woman in 1967.

Sentenced at Bristol Crown Court, Headley was told by the presiding judge, Mr Justice Derek Sweeting, that he would die behind bars after being found guilty of the killing of Louisa Dunne, whom he raped and strangled in her own home nearly six decades ago.

“You will never be released. You will die in prison,” the judge said.

Headley, who was 34 at the time of the crime, broke into Mrs Dunne’s house in 1967.

Judge Sweeting condemned the act as one that “violated the sanctity and safety” of the victim’s residence, adding that she “must have experienced considerable pain and fear before her death.”

The court also heard of Headley’s disturbing history of targeting elderly women. In 1977, a decade after Dunne’s murder, he was convicted for breaking into the homes of two elderly widows and raping them. He was initially sentenced to life imprisonment for those attacks, but the sentence was later reduced to seven years on appeal.

Judge Sweeting noted that the pattern of violence reflected “a chilling behaviour that spans decades,” reinforcing the severity of the life sentence handed down.

The case, long dormant, was reopened by Avon and Somerset Police in 2023, and thanks to advances in forensic science, DNA found on Mrs Dunne’s skirt was matched to Headley. A palm print from the scene, preserved in the original investigation but unmatched at the time, was also identified as his.

During the initial probe, detectives had compared the print against over 19,000 men, yet Headley was not among them — he lived just outside the area where prints were being collected and had managed to evade scrutiny.

His arrest came last November. When confronted by officers, Headley reportedly said:

“I don’t know what you are talking about. Very strange, very strange.”

The breakthrough brought closure to a case that had haunted a family for decades. In a poignant victim impact statement, Dunne’s granddaughter, Mary Dainton, told the court: “I feel it falls to me to speak for the people who are no longer here.”

Ms Dainton, who was just 20 when her grandmother was murdered, added: “I’m now almost the same age as she was when she was killed. The effect on our family has been far-reaching and long-lasting.”

The Crown Prosecution Service hailed the conviction as historic.

“For 58 years, this appalling crime went unsolved and Ryland Headley, the man we now know is responsible, avoided justice,” said CPS representative Charlotte Ream.
Detective Chief Inspector Dave Marchant confirmed that police were now exploring possible links between Headley and other unsolved cases from the 1960s and 70s.

“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,” he said.