Georgia Williams murder: 'Sexual deviant' Jamie Reynolds jailed for life after luring teenager to his home and hanging her

Judge agrees with psychiatric report that concluded Reynolds 'had the potential to progressing to become a serial killer'

Jamie Reynolds, who had previously admitted murder of Georgia Williams, was handed a whole-of-life jail sentence (PA)

The family of a 17-year-old girl murdered after she was lured to her death by a “sexual deviant” branded a “potential serial killer” have spoken of their heart-breaking loss.

Former head girl Georgia Williams, described as popular and intelligent, became the twisted obsession of violent porn-addicted Jamie Reynolds, a shop worker, from her home town of Wellington, Shropshire.

Reynolds, 23, duped Miss Williams into going to his parents' home for a photo-shoot but killed the defenceless teenager in a meticulously planned trap, hanging her from a length of rope attached to the loft hatch.

At Stafford Crown Court today, Reynolds, who had previously admitted murder, was handed a whole-of-life jail sentence with Mr Justice Wilkie telling him he had plotted murder for his own “sadistic pleasure”.

Outside the court, Miss Williams' father Steven Williams said: “We will never ever see smiles again from Georgia and that breaks my heart every day.”

Inside court, Mr Williams - a serving detective with West Mercia Police - broke down as he read an impact statement, telling the judge the vile details of what Reynolds had done to his daughter were “horrific and beyond comprehension”.

Watched through tears by Miss Williams' mother Lynnette and older sister Scarlett, Mr Williams added the death “sees us totally and utterly destroyed - we struggle to function.”

Throughout, Reynolds sat slumped and unmoving in the dock with his head in his hands.

Georgia Williams became the twisted obsession of Jamie Reynolds (PA)

Mr Justice Wilkie, sentencing, agreed with a psychiatric report that Reynolds, who had gone to great length to plan and execute his crime on Sunday, May 26, while his parents were away, “had the potential to progressing to become a serial killer”.

He said: “You watched her die in circumstances where you could have saved her - and doing so was a central part of your pleasure.”

The judge added: “After the killing you took sexual pleasure in her body, then treated her body with contempt, dumping her in a remote area.”

He went on: “You intended to continue to derive sexual pleasure by photographing these events, keeping them with you, and secreting her clothing and jewellery.”

Mr Justice Wilkie said Reynolds had a “long-standing preoccupation with violent and sadistic pornography” and his victim “must have suffered terribly”.

Continuing to address Reynolds, who was wearing a suit and standing with his head bowed and hands clasped behind his back, he said: “This is not a marginal or borderline case.

“I am in no doubt the seriousness of your offending, so a whole-of-life term is the starting point.”

He added: “I take very seriously the conclusion of (psychiatrist) Prof Paul Peckitt that you have the potential to become a serial killer.”

The judge added he was satisfied Reynolds had “been obsessed” with carrying out his sadistic fantasy for at least five years.

“My conclusion is that I am of the opinion that because of the seriousness of this offence no minimum term should apply.”

Prosecutor David Crigman QC said Reynolds carried out a “scripted, sadistic and sexually-motivated murder” and planned the killing of the 17-year-old meticulously.

Outlining the case before sentencing, Mr Crigman described Reynolds as a manipulative individual and “a sexual deviant” who has had “a morbid fascination in pornography depicting violence towards young women in sexual context since at least 2008”.

In May, Reynolds invited Georgia for a photo-shoot at his parents' home in Avondale Road, Wellington, where he killed her.

Reynolds then posed her body, both partly clothed and naked, in different parts of the house including on his parents' bed, also carrying out sordid sex acts.

Mr Crigman said at the time of his arrest for murder, Reynolds had 16,800 images and 72 videos of extreme pornography stored on an external computer hard drive, including digitally doctored images of up to eight other women he personally knew in which ropes had been added around their necks.

Reynolds had also written 40 graphic short stories where women were murdered, “followed by acts of sexual violation”, according to Mr Crigman.

It also emerged in the prosecution case that Reynolds - who appears to have been particularly taken with red-haired women - had written a “script” in which he detailed trapping and killing a victim, adding that much of that script had echoed the manner in which he had killed Miss Williams.

Texts and messages between Reynolds and Miss Williams were also read out in court in which he had spoken of his romantic feelings towards the teenager.

It was an advance she rebuffed, telling him in February: “I don't see you in that way. Just stop, I don't want to ruin our friendship. I told you last time, I just wanted to be friends.”

Mr Crigman said Reynolds's fascination with Miss Williams was undeterred and he had written a gruesome story on his mobile phone entitled “Georgia Williams in Surprise” in which she died following a sex game.

It depicted the victim as a willing participant but that element, Mr Crigman said, could not have been further from the truth.

In May, Miss Williams accepted Reynolds' invitation to take part in a photo-shoot at his parents' house while they were holidaying in Italy.

Reynolds had bought items including a rope, learning to tie a noose and attaching it to what Mr Crigman described as a “hanging mechanism” fitted to the loft hatch in the house, above the landing.

He also bought a leather jacket, leather shorts and high heels for Georgia to wear during the “shoot” and in a chilling message beforehand told her he wanted to take a photograph of her “like simulation hanging, but you'd be standing on a box”.

Miss Williams arrived at the house on the evening of May 26, telling her parents and sister where she was going and that she would only be a couple of hours.

Mr Crigman said that, as she walked the short distance from her parents' home, there was evidence Reynolds watched extreme pornography “to stimulate himself”.

After her death, police recovered several seemingly innocuous photographs taken by Reynolds showing Miss Williams “happy”, “compliant” and fully clothed, although it was clear she could have had no idea of her killer's real intent until it was too late.

The final photographs showed her standing on a red recycling box, hands seemingly bound behind her, with the rope hanging above her, Mr Crigman added.

The prosecutor said: “Photo 12 displays the correct time - 8.20pm. Her face still does not depict any sign of alarm and that is in fact the last photo of her alive.”

Reynolds then used Miss Williams phone to text her mother telling her she was staying with friends overnight.

He used that time to flee with Miss WIlliams' corpse in the back of his step-father's van, but was later arrested in Glasgow following a manhunt on May 29.

When questioned, he refused to divulge were he had dumped her body.

Her naked corpse was eventually found in a stream in remote woodland in the Nant-y-Garth pass, near Wrexham, where it had been subjected to the vagaries of the wilds.

Her father later told the court that he and Miss Williams' mother would carry the scars of the memory of seeing their daughter's body, as it lay in the hospital's chapel of rest, “from here to eternity”.

Miss Williams had also suffered abrasions caused, the prosecution said, by Reynolds when he dragged her from his van to the secluded site.

It also emerged that before dumping her remains, he had calmly gone to watch a film at the cinema in Wrexham while her body lay in the back of the van.

In interview, Reynolds denied any knowledge of what had become of Miss Williams but later said: “I just can't believe I have hurt her - that was never my intention,” Mr Crigman told the court.

A post-mortem showed Miss Williams' died of asphyxia as a result of pressure to the neck, probably caused by a ligature.

Further examination also found bruising in her back indicating Reynolds had levered the helpless teenager using his knee to apply further downward pressure.

Outside the court, Mr Williams said: “There is no sentence that we can ever say we're satisfied with because it'll never bring Georgia back.

“She's dead, she's gone physically and lives in our hearts.”

He added, whatever the length of prison term, Reynolds still had the one thing he had denied his teenage daughter - life.

“The one thing that will always get to us and cause us grief is the fact that even though Jamie Reynolds is serving a full life sentence he still has life to hang onto,” he said.

During the trial, it emerged that Reynolds had come to the police's attention in 2008 when he received what the judge called “a final warning” after trapping another 17-year-old girl in his home, in what was a chilling precursor to Miss Williams' murder.

In 2011, he was again reported, this time after reversing his car into that of a girl who had spurned his amorous advances.

After sentencing, West Mercia Police's investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Neil Jamieson branded Reynolds “a sadistic, very dangerous and manipulative individual” who had gone out of his way to prey on young women.

However, he also confirmed a multi-agency serious case review was now under way dealing with the force's prior contact with Reynolds, and would publish its findings early in the new year.

He added the Independent Police Complaints Commission was being kept informed of the review's progress.

PA