Pub chef who sexually assaulted and murdered artist as she walked her spaniel close to Kent seashore earlier than he took canine to buy to purchase treats is jailed for 25 years

A pub chef who murdered an artist while she walked her dog near a beach was today jailed for a minimum of 25 years. 

Harrison Lawrence Van-Pooss, 21, used a knife to force 54-year-old Claire Knights off a path as she walked back to her car from the beach before sexually assaulting and killing her. 

He then hid her body ‘face down in a dyke’ and went to buy her white and brown spaniel Zebulon treats as she lay dying. 

The mother-of-one was reported missing two days later on August 23, 2023 before being found dead on August 25 between St Nicholas at Wade and Minnis Bay by her family, who were carrying out searches. 

Van-Pooss, who had never met his victim, had her dog with him when he was arrested. 

A day before the murder he had been fired from his job in a restaurant in the seaside village after being caught upskirting. For that offence he was handed one month in prison, to run concurrently.

Before his sentencing at Canterbury Crown Court, Van-Pooss said in a statement read out by his lawyer: ‘I will never forgive myself.’ 

Pub chef Harrison Lawrence Van-Pooss, 21, has admitted murdering Claire Knights last year

Claire Knights, 54, (pictured) was found dead after going on a dog walk from St Nicholas At Wade to Minnis Bay on August 23

Van Pooss took Ms Knights’ spaniel, Zebulon, to buy treats after murdering her 

Van-Pooss, from Margate, had initially denied murder but finally admitted to the charge following numerous psychiatric and psychological assessments.

At the time, he appeared via video link from high-security Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital in Berkshire and spoke to confirm his name and date of birth and to enter his guilty plea.

Alison Morgan KC said Van-Pooss had been ‘manipulating and malingering’ proceedings for months.

Ms Morgan added that having previously claimed to have no memory of events, he then gave a ‘preposterous’ account to a medical expert just a week before his trial was due to start, claiming he’d become ‘angered’ by Ms Knights making ‘unwanted’ sexual advances towards him. 

Ms Knights’ disappearance last summer sparked a widespread search from police, the coastguard and Kent Search and Rescue and lifeboat crews, as well as from family, friends and the local community. 

Ms Knights is believed to have walked from St Nicholas At Wade in Kent to Minnis Bay

The mother-of-one was reported missing on August 23 before her body was found two days later

Van-Pooss had himself been the subject of a Kent Police ‘Missing Person’ appeal on the evening of August 22.

He had been fired from his job at The Powell bar and restaurant in Birchington earlier that day after being caught on CCTV using his phone to film up a woman’s skirt.

In a tribute following her death, Ms Knights was described as a ‘trailblazer in life’.

The sculptor’s achievements included teaching art in two prisons in the early 1990s and graduating from The Margate School with a masters last year, where she was praised as being ‘outstanding and exceptional’.

Natalie Smith, from the Crown Prosecution Service South East, said: ‘None of us can imagine the terror that Claire suffered when she was attacked, knowing that she was alone on an isolated path and being overpowered by a strong and determined man.