Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Murder of Jane Longhurst
Jane Longhurst (6 November 1971 – 14 March 2003) was a British special-needs teacher and musician who was murdered by Graham Coutts on 14 March 2003. Longhurst's partly decomposed body was found burning in woodland in West Sussex on 19 April. Coutts, who was dating Longhurst's best friend, was a guitarist and part-time salesperson living in Brighton.
Coutts admitted to causing Longhurst's death. He claimed that Longhurst had died accidentally during consensual erotic asphyxiation, although the prosecution maintained that there was no evidence suggesting the two had been lovers. Coutts was convicted of murder on 3 February 2004, and sentenced to a life term serving a minimum of 30 years (reduced to 26 years on appeal on 26 January 2005). The conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal on 19 July 2006, and a new trial started on 12 June 2007. He was again found guilty on 4 July 2007.
During the original murder trial in 2004 and the retrial in 2007, Coutts said that he had a fetish for necks and strangulation. His testimony, confirmed by witnesses, stated he had engaged in breath control play with several consenting partners on many occasions without incident over several years.
The Court heard that Coutts had sexually-arousing murderous thoughts about women since he was 15, and after speaking with his GP about his fixations, was referred for psychiatric help. Consultant psychiatrist Larry Culliford testified that he had seen Coutts in 1991, 12 years before the murder, and that Coutts told him that he feared his thoughts might lead to criminal action. Coutts had a self-confessed addiction to internet pornography and accessed violent pornography that simulated strangulation, rape and necrophilia. He had downloaded images of dead and strangled women the day before Longhurst's death. The prosecution said that Coutts' use of violent pornography to satisfy his "sexual fantasies" had led to his dangerous sexual behaviour and murderous intent.
Coutts testified that he wrapped a pair of tights around Longhurst's neck as part of consensual sex and that her death was an accident; he said it was the first occurrence of a sexual act between them. The prosecution claimed that he had invited her to his flat under false pretences, then attacked and killed her to "satisfy his very long-standing and perverted sexual interest in violence to women and in particular the killing of women by strangulation".
Evidence was given by a defence witness that several years earlier, Longhurst had whispered to a colleague that a sexual encounter the previous night had "involved some kind of stopping breathing". The defence claimed that this was evidence that the deceased had engaged in activity with another partner, similar to that claimed by Coutts. Longhurst's boyfriend and a previous lover stated that they had not indulged in erotic asphyxia with her. Prosecution witnesses testified that Longhurst was in a stable relationship with her long-term boyfriend and that they were happy together.
Coutts initially kept the body in his flat in Hove, but then moved it in to a storage unit at Big Yellow Self Storage in Brighton. He visited the storage unit 11 times while the body was there. After he removed the body from the unit, Big Yellow staff noticed the smell and alerted police. The Court heard that Coutts hid Longhurst's body for a month and that it was found in secluded woodland after he set it on fire.
Home Office pathologist Vesna Djurovic testified that Coutts must have been aware of the medical emergency for two to three minutes before death became inevitable. Had Coutts acted on this emergency as soon as he became aware of it, Longhurst would definitely have survived. By continuing to constrict her neck with a ligature long after becoming aware of the emergency, Coutts showed the necessary mens rea for murder. Djurovic said that Longhurst's death could have been from heart attack or vagal inhibition, but in her experience, these were unlikely mechanisms. Djurovic's evidence was contested by defence pathologist, Richard Shepherd, whose expert opinion was that death could have occurred very quickly by vagal inhibition, taking as little as one or two seconds.
Hub AI
Murder of Jane Longhurst AI simulator
(@Murder of Jane Longhurst_simulator)
Murder of Jane Longhurst
Jane Longhurst (6 November 1971 – 14 March 2003) was a British special-needs teacher and musician who was murdered by Graham Coutts on 14 March 2003. Longhurst's partly decomposed body was found burning in woodland in West Sussex on 19 April. Coutts, who was dating Longhurst's best friend, was a guitarist and part-time salesperson living in Brighton.
Coutts admitted to causing Longhurst's death. He claimed that Longhurst had died accidentally during consensual erotic asphyxiation, although the prosecution maintained that there was no evidence suggesting the two had been lovers. Coutts was convicted of murder on 3 February 2004, and sentenced to a life term serving a minimum of 30 years (reduced to 26 years on appeal on 26 January 2005). The conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal on 19 July 2006, and a new trial started on 12 June 2007. He was again found guilty on 4 July 2007.
During the original murder trial in 2004 and the retrial in 2007, Coutts said that he had a fetish for necks and strangulation. His testimony, confirmed by witnesses, stated he had engaged in breath control play with several consenting partners on many occasions without incident over several years.
The Court heard that Coutts had sexually-arousing murderous thoughts about women since he was 15, and after speaking with his GP about his fixations, was referred for psychiatric help. Consultant psychiatrist Larry Culliford testified that he had seen Coutts in 1991, 12 years before the murder, and that Coutts told him that he feared his thoughts might lead to criminal action. Coutts had a self-confessed addiction to internet pornography and accessed violent pornography that simulated strangulation, rape and necrophilia. He had downloaded images of dead and strangled women the day before Longhurst's death. The prosecution said that Coutts' use of violent pornography to satisfy his "sexual fantasies" had led to his dangerous sexual behaviour and murderous intent.
Coutts testified that he wrapped a pair of tights around Longhurst's neck as part of consensual sex and that her death was an accident; he said it was the first occurrence of a sexual act between them. The prosecution claimed that he had invited her to his flat under false pretences, then attacked and killed her to "satisfy his very long-standing and perverted sexual interest in violence to women and in particular the killing of women by strangulation".
Evidence was given by a defence witness that several years earlier, Longhurst had whispered to a colleague that a sexual encounter the previous night had "involved some kind of stopping breathing". The defence claimed that this was evidence that the deceased had engaged in activity with another partner, similar to that claimed by Coutts. Longhurst's boyfriend and a previous lover stated that they had not indulged in erotic asphyxia with her. Prosecution witnesses testified that Longhurst was in a stable relationship with her long-term boyfriend and that they were happy together.
Coutts initially kept the body in his flat in Hove, but then moved it in to a storage unit at Big Yellow Self Storage in Brighton. He visited the storage unit 11 times while the body was there. After he removed the body from the unit, Big Yellow staff noticed the smell and alerted police. The Court heard that Coutts hid Longhurst's body for a month and that it was found in secluded woodland after he set it on fire.
Home Office pathologist Vesna Djurovic testified that Coutts must have been aware of the medical emergency for two to three minutes before death became inevitable. Had Coutts acted on this emergency as soon as he became aware of it, Longhurst would definitely have survived. By continuing to constrict her neck with a ligature long after becoming aware of the emergency, Coutts showed the necessary mens rea for murder. Djurovic said that Longhurst's death could have been from heart attack or vagal inhibition, but in her experience, these were unlikely mechanisms. Djurovic's evidence was contested by defence pathologist, Richard Shepherd, whose expert opinion was that death could have occurred very quickly by vagal inhibition, taking as little as one or two seconds.