This is the moment a ‘heartless’ killer cries that he is going ‘to miss GTA 6’ as police arrest him for murdering his ex-girlfriend.
Robert Richens, 35, of Oxford, launched a ‘brutal attack’ on Rachael Vaughan, 40, in which he ‘punched, kicked and stamped on her repeatedly’, a court heard.
He was ‘responsible for several major rib fractures and a traumatic brain injury’.
The killer was handed life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum of 16 years and one month behind bars after pleading guilty to killing Ms Vaughan, from Abingdon.
At around 6.30am on May 30 last year Richens called the police from his home, confessing that he had killed a woman.
Despite the best efforts of paramedics, Ms Vaughan was pronounced dead at the scene.
He was arrested by police the same day and charged with her murder on May 31.
Bodycam footage from his arrest reveals the disturbing moment the killer sobbed that he was going ‘to miss GTA’, with reference to the popular video game series Grand Theft Auto.
Robert Richens, 35, subjected his ex-girlfriend to a ‘brutal attack’, killing her on the morning of May 30 last year
Pictured: The moment Richens was arrested after turning himself into police
Rachael Vaughan, 40, was ‘punched, kicked and stamped on’ repeatedly
While Richens is restrained in handcuffs and on his knees, and a male police officer holds his arm, a female police officer – off camera – asks Richens: ‘Are you just calling this in just to get us here or is there a body we need to go and look for?’
Weeping, Richens responds: ‘There is, at hers [Ms Vaughan’s house].’
The female police officer then asks the killer where the victim’s house is – before Richens tells her that ‘I need to speak to my solicitor’, adding: ‘I handed myself in on purpose.’
Following his arrest, Richens tells officers at the police station, crying and red in the face: ‘I’m going to miss GTA and that.’
A police officer responds: ‘Which GTA, what are you talking about Robert?’
Richens replies: ‘Six.’
The officer says: ‘Oh, you’ve got ages for that.’
Richens responds: ‘I’m going to get life.’
Richens told the 999 call handler: ‘I did not mean to kill this person’
Pictured: The killer told police officers he was ‘going to miss GTA’
He claimed he ‘accidentally’ killed Ms Vaughan and that he ‘admitted’ to the murder despite the fact he ‘could have went on the run’
Later, while speaking to a colleague, the police officer says: ‘Robert Richens, on the 30th of May, said the following: “I accidentally killed her, at least I admitted to it. I’m going to miss GTA, I’m going to get life.’
As he continues to cry in police custody, Richens tells officers: ‘I can’t get it out of my head.’
He also says: ‘I could have went on the run.’
Earlier, in a recording from his 999 call to police that morning, Richens tells the operator: ‘What I’m about to tell you, have you got my location, because I’ve done something quite serious.’
‘You’re not going to believe this, and I, I think I accidentally killed someone.’
After the call handler asks Richens to tell him what happened, Richens says, sobbing, that ‘she’s not moving’.
‘My name is Robert Richens and I’m being honest because I’m ashamed of what I’ve done,’ he says.
‘I did not mean to kill this person, I did not mean to do it.’
The call handler tells Richens to say on the line until police arrive.
The killer, remarking that he can hear ‘quite a lot of’ police cars, tells the handler he’s ‘scared’ while he can be heard crying.
At his sentencing hearing, Judge Ian Pringle KC said: ‘You subjected Rachael to a brutal attack in her own home.
‘You punched, kicked and stamped on her repeatedly.
‘You were responsible for several major rib fractures and a traumatic brain injury.
‘The pain and suffering she must have endured is an aggravating factor in this case.’
Following Richens’s sentencing on Friday, senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Stuart May, of the Major Crime Unit, said: ‘My thoughts remain with Rachael Vaughan’s family and with everyone who loved her as they continue to face what is an unimaginable loss.
‘Rachael was taken from them in the very place she should have felt safest – her own home.
‘Robert Richens’s actions were heartless. He left Rachael alone in her house, made no attempt to help her or seek medical attention and he only contacted police when he had nowhere else to turn.’