Trevor Dunkley, 66, has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 10 years and 10 months after pleading guilty to the murder of Patricia Lashley, a mother of seven who disappeared in 1998. Dunkley confessed to the killing during a police interview in July this year, telling officers 'I killed her, I'm sorry'.
Confession and Sentencing
Dunkley, who was 38 at the time of the murder, was visited by police as part of an ongoing missing persons inquiry into Ms Lashley's disappearance. During the interview, he described how he hid her body in the cellar of his home at the time. He pleaded guilty to murder at Wolverhampton Crown Court and was sentenced on Friday.
The court heard that Ms Lashley's six oldest children believed their mother had abandoned them. Her nine-month-old baby, who was still breastfeeding, was taken to social services by Dunkley and grew up with adoptive parents.
Court Details and Judge's Remarks
Judge Michael Chambers KC told Dunkley: 'He grew up thinking, obviously quite falsely, that he had been abandoned by his mother, as did his siblings. That is in my judgement a grossly aggravating factor.' The judge accepted that Dunkley was genuinely remorseful, but said what he had done was 'a dreadful thing' and that the passage of time was solely due to lies he had maintained for 28 years.
Dunkley remained calm at the previous hearing as his barrister, Balbir Singh, told a judge the charges had been brought based on a police interview. Asked if the victim's body had been found, Mr Singh answered: 'No, because this is 28 years ago and the body was put into the cellar downstairs. It decomposed. When he was moving about nine months to a year later, the skeleton was disposed of into the bins.'
Investigation and Aftermath
Police said Ms Lashley, known locally as Pat or Jade, lived at an address in Hall Street, Dudley, had links to London, Wales, Newcastle and Scotland, and also used the names Vanessa and Tricia, as well as the surname Bradford. Several members of her family, including three of her children, were present in court to see Dunkley sentenced.
Prosecutor Robert Price told the court Dunkley was seen to become emotional on the day of his arrest, before telling police he had 'just snapped' and repeatedly hit Ms Lashley around the head. He also told police he put the body in the cellar, could hear rats under the kitchen floor, and disposed of bones over a period of weeks.
Ms Lashley was reported missing by her sister in June 1999, and regular appeals were made to locate her, including in the Big Issue and on Good Morning Britain. Detective Inspector Michelle Cordell, from the West Midlands Homicide Unit, said no human remains had been found despite extensive excavation of the cellar. She said of Dunkley's conduct: 'It's truly shocking. For anybody to be able to use such violence… to conceal his crime in the cruel way that he has done – it's despicable. He has prevented Patricia's loved ones from having a funeral for her. He has left them without answers for decades. It's just unforgivable.'
