I locked eyes with a killer after he admitted one Britain’s most wicked murders… what he did subsequent chilled me to my bones, writes MARTIN FRICKER

Jamie Reynolds did not look like a man who had just admitted one of the most depraved killings in British history.

In the dock at Stafford Crown Court dressed in a suit, purple shirt and tie, he appeared more like a nervous work experience kid than a ‘serial killer in waiting’.

But as he stood to be sentenced by Mr Justice Alan Wilkie, he glanced over to the press bench, briefly locking eyes with me.

A slight smirk appeared to cross his face. For a moment it felt like I was looking directly at the devil.

I’d spent the day listening in harrowing detail to what he had done to defenceless 17–year–old Georgia Williams just months earlier.

It was gut–wrenching to hear prosecuting barrister David Crigman QC outline her final moments.

Such was the depravity, Georgia’s heartbroken family walked out of court rather than hearing the details.

Making Reynolds’s callous apparent smirk towards me all the more horrific. It was unthinkable he could find anything to laugh about.

That was the last time I set eyes on Reynolds, moments before he was handed a rare whole–life tariff for murdering teenager Georgia.

He is now detained in Ashworth Hospital alongside notorious criminals including Nottingham rampage killer Valdo Calocane and cop murderer Dale Cregan.

Georgia, a former head girl who dreamed of a career as a frontline medic with the RAF, lived with her parents Steve and Lynette in Wellington, Shropshire.

The teen, whose dad was a detective constable with West Mercia Police, worked part–time in a petrol station and volunteered as match day staff for AFC Telford United.

She was studying for her A–Levels at Ercall Wood Technology College when she met Reynolds at an under–18 music night in a local pub.

He became obsessed, following her on social media and bombarding her with texts and private messages asking to go on dates.

One friend said Reynolds ‘declared his undying love’ for Georgia.

In one message he wrote: ‘I want to be with you, you’re a stunning young woman. I enjoy your company, you make me laugh.’

Georgia politely turned down his advances, saying she was not interested and did not want to spoil their friendship.

She also revealed she had a new boyfriend, a shop worker named Matthew Bird, which enraged Reynolds.

He continued to message her saying: ‘I don’t know why I’m still interested – damn you ‘ginge’.’

She replied ‘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.’

Reynolds responded saying he felt like a mug, and barraged her with texts, however she did not respond.

Unbeknown to her, he then began penning a sick story about how he was going to lure Georgia to his home and kill her.

He spent five months writing a script, called ‘Georgia Williams in Surprise’, and finished it just three weeks before he murdered her.

Describing her hanging from a rope, he wrote: ‘I can’t wait to see you dance for me. I like my girls dead. That was a quality show babe.’

At the time of his arrest, police found 16,800 images and 72 videos of extreme pornography on his computer.

They included digitally–doctored images of up to eight other women he personally knew in which ropes had been added around their necks.

He had also written 40 graphic short stories, which featured a fatal assault on a woman, ‘followed by acts of sexual violation’.

They were found scrawled on notepads in his bedroom and on his mobile phone.

Reynolds was obsessed with extreme pornography and snuff movies – in which actual murders are captured on camera.

Tragically, Georgia was completely unaware of his plans for her and his twisted addiction to violent porn.

So when he asked to take photos of her after feigning an interest in photography, the teen – who had previously modelled for her sister’s business – agreed to pose for him.

Reynolds waited until his parents were on a Bank Holiday trip to Italy on May 26, 2013, before inviting Georgia to his family home for the shoot.

In a chilling Facebook message sent to her just hours before the killing, he wrote: ‘I’m home alone now all week :–D.’

RAF cadet Georgia told her parents she was going to Reynolds’ house, half–a–mile from her home, for the shoot and would be home in two hours.

In a message to Georgia, Reynolds reassured her the photo shoot would be ‘artistic’.

‘You would be standing on a box. I would edit that out on the computer so it would look like you were floating, are you ok with that?’ he added.

She had no idea he had secretly built a terrifying ‘hanging mechanism’ in the loft hatch of the neat semi–detached home.

Records showed he watched several graphic death porn movies to ‘stimulate’ himself as he waited for Georgia to arrive at his house.

Smiling Georgia initially posed for innocent portrait–style snaps, including one in the kitchen.

She was dressed in a black leather jacket she had brought for the occasion, with her hair tied back and bright red lipstick on.

Reynolds then produced a pair of stilettos, leather shorts and a noose he had bought on the internet.

In the last photo of her alive, at 8.20pm, she was seen standing on top of an upturned plastic box under the loft hatch with a red rope around her neck and her hands tied.

Mr Crigman QC later told Stafford Crown Court: ‘She was smiling, comfortable and fully clothed. Her face does not portray any sign of alarm.’

In the next photo, taken around half–an–hour later in Reynolds’ parents’ bedroom, Mr Crigman said Georgia was clearly dead.

Detectives believe Reynolds deliberately tightened the noose around Georgia’s neck before kicking the box from under her feet.

‘He might have had a chance to save her but he didn’t,’ said the prosecuting barrister. ‘He must have stood there and watched her die.’

The photos were so disturbing only the judge was allowed to view them. He ordered them never to be made public.

Mr Crigman described the killing as a ‘scripted, sadistic and sexually–motivated murder’.

Reynolds then stripped Georgia and took photos of her body in various rooms of the house – including on his parents’ bed.

He also removed her jewellery to keep as sick trophies.

After the murder he chillingly texted Georgia’s worried mum using her own mobile phone, claiming she had lost track of time and was staying at a friend’s house.

He then put Georgia in the back of his step–dad’s white Toyota Hiace van and drove 50 miles to Wrexham where he dumped her body in remote woodland.

Steve and Lynette raised the alarm the following morning when they discovered their daughter did not stay with friends.

Steve even phoned Reynolds, who chillingly claimed she left his house without drama following the photo shoot.

By this time Reynolds had gone on the run and detectives launched a huge manhunt.

They eventually tracked him down 280 miles away outside a Premier Inn hotel room in Glasgow.

CCTV showed him in a nearby multi–storey car park changing his clothes.

He was initially arrested on suspicion of kidnap but re–arrested on suspicion of murder after police found photos of Georgia’s body on his laptop.

Her remains were discovered two days later by a dog walker close to the Nant–y–Garth pass near Wrexham.

A postmortem examination showed Georgia died as a result of pressure being applied to her neck.

Reynolds, who worked in a motorway service station on the M54, initially denied killing Georgia.

But he changed his plea on the first day of his scheduled three–week trial in December 2013.

Psychologists who met with him while he was on remand said he had the potential to become a serial killer.

Sentencing Reynolds to a whole–life tariff, Mr Justice Wilkie said he would pose a ‘grave risk’ to women for the rest of his life and was too dangerous to ever be freed.

He said Georgia’s last moments would have been filled with horror ‘knowing she had been betrayed by someone whom she had trusted’.

‘Killing Georgia was an expression of a long–standing, recurrent preoccupation with violent, sadistic pornography,’ he added.

‘You enjoyed the spectacle of her final, ghastly minutes as she struggled for life knowing that she was facing death.’

It later emerged Reynolds had previously attacked a 16–year–old at his parents’ home in 2008 – only to escape with a ‘final warning’ from police.

The then–17–year–old had invited the teen to his house on the pretence of helping with a media project.

He tried to strangle her, but she fought him off and he was reported to police.

Officers decided he had committed assault occasioning actual bodily harm but only issued him with a final warning.

Reynolds’ step–father also went to the authorities telling them he had watched violent porn and drawn nooses around the necks of three schoolgirls on a photo.

But again, no further action was taken by police.

A former colleague who worked at the motorway services with Reynolds in 2009 said he became obsessed with a fellow redheaded employee.

‘He had an infatuation with her,’ she said.

‘It was quite well–known amongst the staff that he liked her but it seemed to become a bit of an obsession.

‘She was getting a bit intimidated by the constant pestering, asking her out, telling people how much he liked her and trying to get her on her own.

‘She finally stood up to him and called it a day.’

In a post on social media site Ask.fm, Reynolds complained about his love life.

‘Whenever I arrange dates they either never happen or the girl magically gains a boyfriend,’ he said.

‘And it’s worse when you actually like someone, you’re stuck, happy they’re happy but unhappy cos it’s not you.’

Reynolds also moaned about being ‘cursed’ when it came to women and wrote that he would be ‘forever alone’.

In the aftermath of the crime, a serious case review heavily criticised West Mercia police officers and other agencies who dealt with Reynolds.

But none of the officers or staff involved faced a charge of gross misconduct, which could have lead to dismissal.

Instead they were subject to less serious ‘misconduct meetings’.

One officer and one police staff member received a written warning, while two officers were given ‘management advice’.

Steve and Lynette were furious with the misconduct meeting, likening it to ‘a group of junior school children being told off by the headmaster’.

They said they had heard ‘excuses but no real reasons’, adding: ‘Georgia died because the suspect had more rights than the victims.’

Responding to the findings of the serious case review they said: ‘It was so obvious that Reynolds was, if not one already, a murderer in the making.’

In a tribute to his daughter, Steve said Georgia had her whole life ahead of her.

‘You couldn’t have taken a fuller life away from someone,’ he said.

The Georgia Williams Trust was set up in the weeks after her murder to provide a lasting long–term legacy for her local community.

It celebrates her life and achievements by enabling young people to access adventure, outdoor activities and volunteering.