Continuation from previous report
AT SWANSEA CROWN COURT this afternoon, Judge Paul Thomas QC has found that the murder of teenager Lily Sullivan was motivated by sexual “frustration” from Haines, who wanted to “go further” than Lily did after a night out in Pembroke.
The judge rejected the claim that Lewis Haines attempted to save Lily from the water after she entered the Millpond.
Haines was seen crouched in his seat with his head buried in his hands, while Lily’s family looked on from the public gallery, nodding with agreement at the Judge’s remarks.
The judge said: “I have no doubt that some degree of intimacy was intended between them and indeed occurred.
“Lily of course, tragically, cannot give evidence about what happened in the lane during that period.
Lewis Haines has chosen not to give evidence at the hearing.
“I am sure a degree of intimacy occurred in the lane. I am equally sure it did not progress to sexual intercourse or anything near it. I am sure that did not happen because Lily did not want that to happen.”
“There was no indication of distress but a clear indication she was now coming to meet her mother. That phone call ended abruptly mid-conversation, which Mrs Sullivan says was very atypical of Lily.
“There is some grainy footage from the lane. At one point Lily’s phone is seen to be moving rapidly around, when it seems to me that phone calls were incoming. At around the same time, a barber who lived above the alley heard a man and woman quarrelling, and a woman insisting she did not want to move from where she was.”
The judge added: “it was significant that Lily’s phone and jacket were left in the alleyway. I find she did not leave those voluntarily at that spot,” he said. “I find further that she did not leave the alley of her own volition but was forcibly taken to the Mill Pond by Lewis Haines.
“Her body, when recovered, was naked from the waist up. Her skimpy top was found slightly damp on vegetation near the Mill Pond. I come to the conclusion she was not wearing that top when she went into the river.
“Had she been it would have been completely saturated. I find it was removed from Lily against her will by Lewis Haines.
“Lewis Haines struck Lily on several occasions, as her injury and the presence of blood show. That was done with significant force. He then strangled her, probably to death, before putting her into the Mill Pond where she would not be seen at night.
“I wholly reject the account put forward by Lewis Haines that he went into the water to try to save Lily. If he went into the water at all – and he probably did – he wanted to make sure she had died. His intention was to silence her.
“He had a phone at all times. He passed many houses on the walk home. But he made no attempt to help her or get assistance from others.
“He didn’t want her to be in a position to tell anyone what had happened in the lane. Killing her was the only way he could be confident she would not survive to tell her family what had happened. It was only after he knew she had not survived that he let others know where she was.
“Why did he want to ensure that Lily could not be saved? He put in his statement that she had threatened to falsely accuse him of rape. I am sure, however, that having been in that lane for some time and having had intimate contact up to a point, Lily decided she was going to meet her mother… She did not want the intimacy to go as far as sexual intercourse.
“Fuelled as he was by drink, I am satisfied that Lewis Haines was frustrated by this… He became forceful towards her, and she resisted. I am sure from the evidence that Lily did not remove her top voluntarily to be naked in the middle of the night in December. I am sure Mr Haines took it off her.
“His account of her threatening to tell people what he had done with her does in fact have an element based in truth. I find she did say she would complain, not that he had actually raped her, because he had not, but because he had tried to force himself upon her against her will.”
Haines is due to be sentenced on Friday. He could face a life sentence with a minimum term of 30 years.
The judge thanked Lily’s family, many of whom were sitting in the public gallery. He praised their dignity amid an ‘excruciating’ case.
