Dad who murdered teen on night he met her at boozy Christmas party jailed for life
A dad who strangled a teenager to death after she refused to sleep with him at a boozy Christmas party has been jailed for life and will serve a minimum term of 23 years behind bars.
Lewis Haines, 31, had previously admitted murdering Lily Sullivan after he encountered her while on the festive night out in the Welsh town on December 16 last year, but had denied there was any sexual element to the fatal assault.
A judge eventually ruled in the prosecution’s favour and found a sexual motive behind Haines’ actions, condemning the killer to a much lengthier sentence.
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The 18-year-old was seen enjoying the evening with friends in the hours before her death.
Haines and Lily had met in nightclub Paddles before they left the club separately, but then met in a lane near the club. They were then seen walking in the direction of an area known as the Mill Pond.
(Image: WALES NEWS SERVICE)
Just hours before, she had been seen partying with friends in the club where she had met Haines through their mutual friend Charlene Jones.
In a statement read to the court, Ms Jones said: “I could tell he was trying to chat Lily up. He was buying her drinks and standing close to her.
“He was being very flirtatious with her. I think he wanted to have sex with her.”
After the club closed, Ms Jones said she saw Haines and Ms Sullivan walk away down the street together and shouted: “You’ve got a girlfriend and a baby at home. She’s only 18.”
Two people living nearby the alleyway said they heard a man and woman arguing in the early hours of the morning, with one witness saying she heard a woman scream.
During this time, Ms Sullivan’s mother Anna – who was supposed to pick her daughter and friend Lara Wood up at 2am – was becoming concerned.
(Image: WALES NEWS SERVICE)
She eventually spoke to Ms Wood who told her she was no longer with Ms Sullivan.
After dozens of calls and text messages to her daughter, Ms Sullivan answered the phone and told her mother she would meet her at a nearby garage, but she never arrived.
She last spoke to her daughter just before 3am when Ms Sullivan answered the phone again and said she was just “minutes away”.
The phone call was cut off mid-sentence and Lily was later found dead.
An inquest previously heard Lily had been strangled before she was left in the pond.
After leaving Lily’s body in the water, Haines ran off. But he later confessed the killing to several people and was arrested within hours.
The father-of-one, of Flemish Court, Lamphey, Pembrokeshire, denied the killing was sexually motivated.
The 18-year-old was seen enjoying the evening with friends in the hours before her death.
Swansea Crown Court heard how she and Haines met inside the Paddles club and later left together, and were seen walking in the direction of an area known as the Mill Pond.
Ms Sullivan was discovered by police in the pond near the Mill Bridge in the early hours of the following day.
A post-mortem examination found Ms Sullivan had been strangled before being left in the pond.
When she was found she was no longer wearing the crop top she had been pictured in that night.
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