Rapist murdered lodger, 21, days after she moved in

A convicted rapist has been jailed for at least 33 years for the murder of a woman who moved into his home as a lodger just days earlier.

Michael Doherty, 33, was jailed for life at Leeds Crown Court after he admitted strangling Courtney Angus when she rejected his advances at his home in Norfolk Street, Batley.

The 21-year-old was sexually assaulted, had parts of her body cut off and suffered a total of 76 injuries during the fatal attack in July last year. After her death, Doherty used his phone to take indecent images of her.

He told police about her body when he had been detained by officers for brandishing a knife after stealing from a supermarket the next day.

Doherty, who changed his name from Michael Moore in 2018, had a history of violence towards women who rejected him, with convictions for raping a stranger on her way home from a nightclub and torching a former partner's car.

The court heard Courtney had moved into his house days before her death in July, but was not his partner and did not want a relationship.

Prosecutor Craig Hassall said Doherty made it clear he liked her, and texted her threatening to kill himself on the day of the murder.

Courtney told him in a message: "It's not my fault Mikey, I don't want a relationship, I told you this from the start, I haven't led you on. I've been a good friend to you."

Hassall said that during the evening of 25 July, the two were at the house they now shared.

He told the court the evidence was that "shortly before her death, Courtney had rejected the offender's advances towards some sort of intimate relationship between the two of them".

Doherty sexually attacked Courtney during the drug-fuelled assault, and cut off parts of her body, "callously" leaving them on his mantelpiece.

A pathologist found that the cause of her death was pressure on the neck, from strangling, coupled with head injuries from blunt force trauma.

After taking indecent images of Courtney on his phone, Doherty sent a message to a friend saying: "I've killed someone, ring me please."

The next morning Doherty went on a stealing spree in Batley and nearby Dewsbury

At 21:15 BST he was followed out of an Asda store in Dewsbury by staff when he left without paying, and produced a large knife.

When police found him in Dewsbury town centre he was brandishing a knife and told officers: "Get armed response and SIO to me now because I've got murder, I've got a dead body in my house."

A statement from Courtney's mother, Diane Angus, said: "Losing my daughter has left a space in my heart that nothing can fill.

"I carry her with me in every thought, every breath, every moment. I wish I could hold her again."

A statement from Chloe Angus on behalf of all Courtney's sisters said seeing her in a mortuary "will never leave our minds".

It read: "How could someone hurt a young, vulnerable woman in the way that he did?

"Courtney had her whole life ahead of her, she had just turned 21. She was loved deeply by everyone around her. Courtney was the life and soul of every room she walked into."

The court heard Doherty had 23 previous convictions, including one for raping a woman he did not know in 2013 while pretending to walk her home from a nightclub.

He was jailed for five years, and entered a brief relationship with another woman after he was released, but torched her car when she ended things.

In January this year Doherty pleaded guilty to murdering Courtney, theft and three counts of threatening a person with a blade.

Richard Wright KC, defending, said Doherty had been in a "highly intoxicated state clashing with a highly complicated mental health picture at the time".

Jailing Doherty for life with a minimum term of 33 years, Judge Guy Kearl, the Recorder of Leeds, said: "You have, by your actions, changed the lives of all of those who knew Courtney Angus forever, in particular, her family.

"But worse than that, you took her life in a senseless rage, as I find, after she had rejected you."

He added: "Having been rejected by her you decided to overpower her, both physically and sexually, in order to satisfy yourself, and you took pleasure in doing so."

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