Triple killer who murdered elderly neighbour given whole life sentence

A triple killer who murdered his elderly neighbour after being freed early because he was deemed ‘low risk’ has been handed a whole life sentence.

Brian Whitelock, 57, attacked Wendy Buckney, 71, with a kitchen knife, a broken table leg and wooden shelving during a ‘brutal, terrifying’ assault in her own home in August 2022.

He told police who turned up to her house in Clydach, near Swansea, that he had ‘tortured’ Ms Buckney, who suffered ‘too many injuries to count’.

Whitelock was dragged down to the cells after screaming at the jury from the dock when they convicted him of murder last month, telling them: ‘I hope you all suffer a brain injury. I hope you all suffer what I went through. You are all bang out of order.’

Whitelock was previously jailed for life in 2001 for murder and manslaughter.

The Parole Board originally released him in December 2018 and in December 2020 he was returned to prison after being convicted of assaulting a shop worker in a Co-op store in Swansea.

The following October he was released for a second time and, less than a year later, he murdered again.

He moved in opposite Ms Buckney, who employed him to do odd jobs, including gardening.

Sentencing Whitelock, Mr Justice Griffiths said: ‘She knew you had been in prison, although not why, but when a relative expressed some anxiety about that, she said “everyone deserves a second chance”.

‘You described her as like a second mother to you. She deserved nothing but your gratitude.

‘But you brutally murdered her anyway and you have never, ever suggested a motive. You killed her for your own pleasure.’

Christopher Rees KC, prosecuting, told the jury : ‘Ms Buckney must have suffered greatly at the hands of this defendant before death – you will hear evidence of the multiple stab injuries, sharp force injuries and blunt force injuries inflicted upon her.

‘You will also hear evidence of sexual assault upon her – whether this was done by the defendant before, during or after his attack upon her is impossible, forensically, to say.’

Whitelock had gone to Ms Buckney’s flat fully clothed but, by the time he was seen hours later by a neighbour, he was wearing just his pants inside out and covered in blood.

‘The defendant, upon arrest, admitted that he had not just murdered her, but ‘tortured’ her, with various objects,’ Mr Rees said.

The police were alerted by a neighbour, Jeffrey Llewellyn, after Whitelock told him: ‘I’ve killed Wendy.’

Whitelock, who was kneeling on the front lawn and wiping dirt over his body, continued shouting: ‘I’ve killed her, there’s all fresh flesh hanging off her. She’s face down in there. I don’t know why I’ve done it. She’s been good to me.’

He was arrested by police at the scene, and told officers: ‘I tried to clean her up, like, now I’m trying to help her, like, but it’s too f****** late, like.

‘I definitely killed her, like, she was begging me to stop.’

He added: ‘It looks like I f****** tortured her, I have, like, I literally have. She was begging me to stop.’

The Ministry of Justice declined to comment on whether any disciplinary proceedings against staff had taken place in the wake of the case.

‘This was an appalling crime and our thoughts remain with the friends and family of Wendy Buckney,’ a spokesman said.

‘A serious further offence review is currently under way, and we will share the findings of the review with Ms Buckney’s family.’

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