Teen who killed his ex for a free breakfast found guilty of murder
A schoolboy who murdered a former girlfriend for a free breakfast went online just hours after the killing to sympathise with her mother and to highlight the “normal” evening he was having, it has emerged.
Rebecca Aylward was murdered in Wales in 2010 Photo: PA
Joshua Davies, 16, can be named for the first time today after being found guilty of murder by a jury at Swansea Crown Court.
He lured Rebecca Aylward, 15, to a secluded wood and then used a rock the size of a rugby ball to smash her skull with at least six brutal blows to the back of the head.
Davies then went to a friend’s house where he drank tea and bragged about what he had done. That evening, he created an alibi by posting messages on social networking site Facebook claiming he was "chilling out with friends" while watching Strictly Come Dancing.
After Rebecca’s family had reported her missing, he used the website to feign concern.
In one exchange he wrote: "I feel sorry for her mother." When asked why, he replied: "Well if I was a parent I'd be worried if my daughter was missing."
Davies showed no emotion as the jury delivered its 10-2 majority verdict, which was met with brief cheers from Rebecca’s family.
Mr Justice Lloyd Jones lifted an anonymity order because of the "strong public interest in open justice."
He said: "This is a crime that has affected a small enclosed community. It is right that the public should know that there has been a conviction and who is convicted."
Davies, who was said to have had a “love-hate” relationship with Rebecca, had calmly discussed the various ways he could kill her with a group of friends whom he met for breakfast every Saturday morning in Aberkenfig, South Wales, the jury heard.
Over a cup of tea and a full English, he disclosed that he was considering poisoning, drowning or pushing her off a cliff, bragging about how he would "get away with it" and how he could "cover up" the killing.
After one such meeting Davies sent a text to a friend asking: "What would you do if I actually did kill her?" The friend replied: “Oh, I would buy you breakfast.”
On the day of the murder, last October, Davies met the group as normal before leaving to meet Rebecca. Before he left, he said: "The time has come."
Having told them he intended to kill her they later called him and asked whether he was with her.
"Define with," Davies replied, suggesting that they might be together but that she was no longer alive.
After the killing, Davies summoned two friends to the forest and told one to pull back her hood to see if she was dead.
Greg Taylor, prosecuting, told the court that he had then described how he had killed the GCSE student.
He said: “Joshua told his friends: ‘She was facing away from me and I thought: This is it, I'm going to go for it. I tried to break her neck. She was screaming so I picked up the rock and started to hit her with it.
"The worst part was feeling and seeing her skull give way’”.
Davies spent the evening at his aunt’s house, where he acted as if nothing had happened, watching violent thriller No Country for Old Men.
The schoolgirl's body was found face down in the rain the following day after one of Davies’s friends contacted police and led them to the scene.
One school friend said he was “obsessed” with killing people. After his arrest, police found a concoction of poisonous foxgloves which he had planned to slip into Rebecca's drink.
A friend of Rebecca's said: "Everyone heard that Josh had all these different ways he talked of killing Becca, but despite all that she still wanted to be with him. No one thought he was being serious, least of all Becca.
"Becca worshipped Josh but he took advantage of all of that. She wanted to go out with him again.”
Her mother Sonia Aylward told the court that her daughter had thought Davies wanted to meet her to rekindle their relationship.
She said: "She got up at six o'clock that morning to get ready and to do her make-up. She put on her new clothes, bought the day before, she was wearing them for the first time.
"Rebecca sounded really happy when she saw it was him coming down the hill towards her.”
During the trial Davies blamed a 16-year-old friend, who cannot be named, for her murder. The friend insisted that when he arrived at the scene Rebecca, from Bridgend, was already dead.
The judge adjourned sentencing for psychiatric reports.
2011-07-27
Teen who killed his ex for a free breakfast found guilty of murder - Telegraph
via telegraph.co.uk
