For the first time in Northern Ireland, a rapist turned killer was yesterday told he would stay in jail until the day he dies. Dungannon Crown Court judge Mr Justice Richard McLaughlin told Trevor William Hamilton (24), a farm labourer, that he deserved to spend the rest of his life in jail for the brutal murder of pensioner Attracta Harron.
She was found naked and trussed in a sack buried in a makeshift grave dug into a river bank bordering Hamilton's home on Concess Road, Sion Mills, Co Tyrone, on April 5th, 2004.
He was out of jail in less than four months after serving part of a seven-year sentence for rape, attempted buggery and threats to kill, when he bludgeoned the mother of five to death with an axe or hatchet.
Mr Justice McLaughlin told Hamilton "the manner of her death was callous and brutal in the extreme" and whatever weapon was used, "it was applied pitilessly with chilling cruelty and without regard for the suffering of a helpless woman unable to escape, fight back or otherwise defend herself".
He told a smiling Hamilton that "to satisfy the demand for retribution and to deter others from committing such appalling acts - you will in consequence spend the rest of your life in prison".
Hamilton battered the retired librarian to death within an hour of her disappearance while returning to her Strabane home from daily Mass in Murlog, Lifford, Co Donegal, on December 11th, 2003. He tried to cover his tracks by burning his red Hyundai Lantra car and Mrs Harron's clothing and belongings, "but fortunately for the public and justice", he failed.
Blood traces were uncovered in the burnt-out car and from the ashes of two fires in his garden, police found remains of her red coat and Rosary beads.
During the seven-week trial, which ended in April, Hamilton told a disbelieving jury that he had never in his life gone to the bottom of his garden where her body was found. Hamilton claimed he would have "no reason at all" to go there.
Imposing the first "whole-life term" sentence in Northern Ireland, Mr Justice McLaughlin said given "the major aggravating factors and the absence of any mitigating factors a very high tariff figure is justified, indeed demanded in this case".
The judge said what he did to "Mrs Harron, a good and loving woman, was at once nauseating and horrifying, it was the stuff of nightmares and the epitome of the loss of innocence in our community.
"What that poor woman experienced as you prepared to execute her, whatever weapon you used to accomplish it, was so appalling that it demands retribution of the most severe kind.
"I conclude that only one punishment is appropriate especially as you have been given a second chance in the past but that it had no effect on your behaviour."
Referring to Hamilton's previous convictions for indecency, rape, attempted buggery and threats to kill, the judge said the rapidity of his reoffending, coupled with a complete lack of remorse, demanded the need for deterring others who felt and would act like him.
"A rapist who treats a victim as you did and who threatens to kill her to secure her silence and who then kills another victim whom he abducted in these circumstances and does so within four months of completing a seven-year term must face a severe sanction in the absence of any mitigation," the judge added.
Earlier he said it was clear from the "irrefutable" evidence that the motive behind Mrs Harron's abduction was sexual. Her murder, "callous and brutal in the extreme" and the attempts to conceal her body and destroy evidence was a clumsy effort on his behalf to cover that up.
Mr Justice McLaughlin also found that Hamilton was fully aware of what he was doing when he abducted and killed Mrs Harron.
He said the trial "was a harrowing experience for everyone who took part in it".
However, "as the evidence unfolded it became apparent that the prosecution case was irrefutable and your conviction was entirely justified".
Mr Justice McLaughlin said the devastating impact of what Hamilton did could best be summed up in the words of her son Micheál, who had written that the murder "will reverberate for generations through our family".