A Ballymena man has been sentenced to at least 17 years for the murder of 21-year-old Julie Tennant. Jailing him for the murder, Ballymena Crown Court judge Mr Justice Weatherup said Adrian Hayes had yet to show any remorse for his brutal attack, after which he buried Ms Tennant's body in a shallow grave.
The court heard that Hayes (28) had enticed Ms Tennant to his Warden Street home in Ballymena in the early hours of August 5th, 2000.
Hayes later claimed he was "lonely and wanted someone to talk to", but Ms Tennant, a recovering addict, spurned him and he attacked her when she tried to leave. In the hallway he knocked her to the floor and pummelled her face with his fists for 20 minutes, shattering her nose.
Afterwards Hayes went back to the livingroom where he turned up his TV and stereo to drown out her cries. But the background noise failed to muffle her cries, which began, in Hayes's words, "to do my head in", so he picked up a tube of superglue and glued her lips together to "keep her quiet".
Hayes returned to the livingroom where he dozed in a chair and when he awoke Ms Tennant was dead. He "packaged" her body in bin bags and dumped her in the garden shed.
He telephoned his estranged wife Fiona, leaving a message on her answering service professing his love and arranging to take her away for the weekend. On his return home on Sunday night he "waited for darkness" before putting the body in the boot of his car and driving to the nearby village of Broughshane, where he buried her in a shallow grave.