Teenager who murdered mother-of-two Lindsay Birbeck jailed for life
14 August 2020, 12:04
The teenager who murdered teaching assistant and mother-of-two Lindsay Birbeck in Accrington has been jailed for life.
Rocky Marciano Price, 17, was sentenced at Preston Crown Court for the murder of Ms Birbeck, 47 in August last year.
He must serve a minimum of 16 years in custody.
Price was convicted of the murder of teaching assistant Ms Birbeck on Wednesday. She was killed in woods close to her home before Price dumped her body in a wheelie bin and later buried her in a shallow grave at Accrington Cemetery.
Teenager sentenced for teaching assistant’s murder
His victim was discovered wrapped in two plastic bags on August 24 last year - 12 days after she went missing, which prompted a huge search by police and members of the community.
Price, from Accrington, had been on the prowl in the woods for lone females and is thought to have killed Mrs Birbeck shortly after she entered the woods.
Exactly a year on from when the mother-of-two was last seen alive a jury unanimously rejected his account that a mystery man had offered him a large cash reward if he disposed of a body.
Sentencing Price to life, Mrs Justice Yip said: "The attack was swift and brutal.
"I am sure the defendant lay in wait with the intention of killing a passing woman.
"Why he decided to kill her only he knows. If it had not been Lindsay Birbeck, it could have been someone else.
"This was the entirely random killing of a stranger."
The judge said: "As Sarah's (daughter) statement makes clear, the reality is that she knew she would not disappear of her own accord and expected the worse from an early stage.
"The local community came out in force to to look for Lindsay. There is no doubt that her disappearance and the subsequent discovery of her body caused fear and concern to many people.
"There will have been a natural sense that what happened to Lindsay could have happened to any woman."
