Man jailed after he admitted murdering mother of seven 28 years ago

A man has been jailed for more than 10 years after he admitted to murdering a mother of seven who disappeared 28 years ago then disposing of her decomposed body in household waste.

Trevor Dunkley, 66, also pleaded guilty to preventing the lawful burial of Patricia Lashley, who went missing from her home in Dudley, West Midlands, in September 1998.

Almost 30 years later, Dunkley made the shock confession that he had killed Ms Lashley to a police officer investigating her disappearance.

"I killed her. I'm sorry," he told the officer in July this year, and described hiding the victim's body in the cellar of his home.

On Friday, Dunkley was given a life sentence at Wolverhampton Crown Court for her murder, with a minimum term of 10 years and 10 months in prison.

Sentencing Dunkley, Judge Michael Chambers KC told the former furnaceman that killing the 33-year-old had meant her baby son and six other children wrongly believed they had been abandoned.

Dunkley told detectives he had covered Ms Lashley's body with bedding and took her down to the cellar, disposing of her remains in four stages.

Dunkley, who was not the baby's father, then took the boy to social services and claimed Ms Lashley had abandoned him, Judge Chambers was told.

The judge said he accepted that Dunkley was genuinely remorseful, but what he had done was "a dreadful thing" and the passage of time was solely due to untruths maintained over 28 years.

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Dunkley and Ms Lashley shared a home in Hall Street at the time of the killing, West Midlands Police said.

They met while she was pregnant, and Ms Lashley soon moved into his flat.

On the day of Ms Lashley's murder, Dunkley, then aged 38, launched a violent physical attack on her with his fists as she lay in bed after the "red mist" descended.

He moved Ms Lashley's body to the basement, and a year later disposed of her corpse in household waste over several weeks.

Prosecutor Robert Price said Dunkley claimed he didn't love the victim, didn't have a sexual relationship with her, and "just wanted to help with the baby".

Several of her family members, including three of her children, were in court for the sentencing.

Detective Inspector Michelle Cordell, from the West Midlands Homicide Unit, said on Friday no human remains had been found, despite extensive excavation of the cellar.

It is unlikely that the remains will ever be found, police have said.

Det Insp Cordell said of Dunkley's conduct: "It's truly shocking. For anybody to be able to use such violence... to conceal his crime in the cruel way that he has done - it's despicable.

"He has prevented Patricia's loved ones from having a funeral for her.

"He has left them without answers for decades. It's just unforgivable."

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