Oldest double jeopardy killer finally gets justice as man jailed for life for teen's 1975 murder
13 January 2023, 16:12
A man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for raping and murdering a teenager nearly 50 years ago after a one-in-a-billion DNA match.
Dennis McGrory was 28 when he raped, stabbed and strangled Jacqui Montgomery, 15, in her home in Islington, north London, back in 1975.
He was tried on circumstantial evidence the following year and was cleared of murder.
But the 75-year-old has finally been convicted decades on from the attack, after swabs from the victim's body produced a one-in-a-billion DNA match.
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After the ancient legal principle of double jeopardy, which had prevented defendants from being charged with the same twice, was scrapped, McGrory was tried again, and found guilty of rape and murder in December.
He was sentenced today to life with a minimum term of 25 years and 126 days.
Sentencing McGrory, who appeared via a video-link at Huntingdon Crown court from HMP Peterborough today, Mr Justice Bryan told him: “I have no doubt whatsoever that you intended to kill her in your brutal attack on her.
“You put Jacqui through a horrific, violent and sustained ordeal in her own home – a place where she was entitled to feel safe.
“In the decades that followed, you must have thought you had gotten away with your hideous crimes.
“How any man could inflict such sexual violence on a 15-year-old child that had done them no harm beggars belief.
“You have shown not one iota of remorse or compassion for Jacqui or Jacqui’s family.
“You cut short that life and deprived her of that life, and all the things she hoped for in that life.”
McGrory had been “wild with rage” when he murdered the teenager, jurors were told, as he attempted to track down his ex-partner Josie Montgomery, who was the victim’s aunt.
Jacqui had suffered fatal stab wounds, blunt force trauma to the face, and been strangled with the flex of an iron.
McGrory had threatened to rape Jacqui in the past, and that night he “made good” on those words, jurors were told.
Jacqui’s sister Kathy Montgomery’s victim impact statement was read to the court at the hearing today. It said: “A violent man who had been living within our family (raped and) murdered my sister.
"He has been able to live his life. He has spent nearly 50 years as a free man doing as he pleased.
“I find that unbearable when my sister didn’t even reach her 16th birthday. His actions caused trauma to so many people and there were no consequences for him.
“The investigation of the last few years has meant revisiting memories of the murder which has caused pain and stress for me and my family and I am relieved that we finally have justice for Jacqui.”
