Burglar jailed for life for sexual assault and murder of 89-year-old woman in her bed

A “very dangerous” burglar who sexually assaulted and murdered an 89-year-old woman in her own bed has been jailed for life.

Reece Dempster, 23, looked at the floor and nodded as he was given a minimum term of 34 years behind bars for killing Dorothy Woolmer.

He had initially pleaded “not guilty” to one count of murder and two counts of sexual assault by penetration, but changed his plea to “guilty” part-way through the Old Bailey trial.

Mrs Woolmer – known as Dot – was attacked at her home in Tottenham, north London, last August while Dempster was on the hunt for money to feed his drug habit.

He had done gardening work for the “independent” and “feisty” pensioner a month before he broke into her property in Waltheof Gardens while she slept and armed himself with a truncheon he found in her cupboard as he searched for cash.

Using the truncheon, he inflicted severe head and groin injuries on the sleeping widow, who was shorter than 5ft and weighed less than eight stone.

Judge Mr Justice Edis regularly made eye contact with Dempster as he read out his sentence.

He said: “I have no doubt your behaviour was influenced by your consumption of drink and crack cocaine, but that does not excuse what you did.

“Actually, it makes it worse. She (Mrs Woolmer) was tiny and defenceless and you knew that.

“Because of you, she died an unimaginably dreadful death.

“You seemed to have killed her for pleasure in your drunken state, the murder involved sexual or sadistic conduct.

“You are a very dangerous man.”

The body of the pensioner, whose husband died in 2017, was discovered by her sister and a close friend who had tried unsuccessfully to reach her.

A pathology report suggested Mrs Woolmer, who had the bone condition osteoporosis, suffered 10 or more blows to the head, and was sexually assaulted while she was alive.

The court heard Dempster told a former partner how he had smoked crack and drunk “three or four bottles of gin”, adding: “I went off and I went to rob a house – I think I hurt someone”.

“I just blacked out and then I turned a light on and there was blood everywhere… I got a hundred quid – it wasn’t even worth it,” he allegedly said.

Mr Justice Edis appeared emotional as he praised Mrs Woolmer’s family for their dignity in sitting through proceedings.

Her family described her as “a wonderful, full of life, beautiful woman”.

“She was independent and was so full of life. Family was everything to her and she was everything to us,” they said in a statement.

“There isn’t a member of the family that hasn’t been severely affected by what’s happened to Dot, even though we can’t bring her back, the only thing for the family now would be a severe sentence for this man in order to prevent him from being able to do this to another family.”

Detective Inspector Garry Moncrieff of specialist crime called the case “one of the most disturbing I have ever encountered” and senior officers were shocked at “the depth of the defendant’s depravity”.

“How someone could perpetrate such vile acts on a lone and vulnerable elderly woman is beyond my comprehension,” he said.

“Dorothy Woolmer was a proud and independent woman and to have her life ended by this man’s monstrous acts is beyond tragic.”

(c) Sky News 2020: Burglar jailed for life for sexual assault and murder of 89-year-old woman in her bed