A man who killed a community support police officer as she walked her dog in woodland near her home in Kent has been jailed for life.
Callum Wheeler, 22, used a railway jack to beat married mother-of-two Julia James to death as she walked in Acholt Wood near her Snowdown home on April 27 last year.
He was jailed for life with a minimum term of 37 years for the “brutal and vicious” attack on the 53-year-old, which a judge said was sexually motivated.
Sentencing Wheeler at Canterbury Crown Court today, Mr Justice Wall told him: ‘Your actions not only served to bring a single life to an untimely end but also destroyed the lives of her entire family.
“Based on the evidence, I have come to the obvious conclusion that this is not an accidental deviation on your part.
“You were out there looking for a lone female victim and you were sexually motivated to do so.”
Wheeler showed no emotion as he was escorted to the cells in front of his victim’s family, including her husband Paul James, daughter Bethan Coles and son Patrick Davis.
Wheeler, who was 21 and unemployed at the time of the murder, was seen driving around the countryside with the murder weapon in the day before Ms James’ death and in the days after as hundreds of police searched the area for clues.
PCSO Julia James was attacked while out walking her dog in woodland near her home in Kent
(Family material/PA)
When arrested, Wheeler told officers “sometimes I do things I can’t control” and “you can’t go into the woods and expect to be safe.”
He also told a member of the police that he was going to go back to the woods and rape and kill a woman and that Mrs James deserved to die.
During the trial, prosecutor Alison Morgan told jurors that Wheeler had visited the site near where Ms James was attacked at least four times before her death.
Jurors were told Mrs James had seen Wheeler three times in Ackholt Wood in the months before her death.
Mrs James was found dead at the edge of a field near the forest at around 4pm on 27 April 2021.
Patrick Davies (left) and Paul James, son and husband of PCSO Julia James, outside Friday’s sentencing at Canterbury Crown Court in Kent
(PA)
Prosecutors believe Wheeler was in the woods around 2pm, while Ms James left her home with her Jack Russell dog Toby at 2.12pm.
The last message she sent on her phone was at 2:25 p.m., shortly after she reached the wooded area.
Her Apple smartwatch showed she had taken her usual route before her heart rate spiked at 2.30pm and she suddenly detoured around the woods and past a field.
There was no movement after 2:35 p.m., and her last pulse was recorded at 2:43 p.m.
The prosecution claimed Ms James “ran for her life” to escape her attacker and was chased before being beaten to death with the 97cm cylindrical pole used to lift train tracks.
Police seized the metal railroad jack from Wheeler’s bedroom after he was arrested. Forensic experts later found Mrs James’ DNA on the instrument.
Ms James suffered a broken left wrist where she either tripped and fell or was knocked to the ground, as well as catastrophic head injuries.
Callum Wheeler, then 21, killed off-duty PCSO Julia James, 53, as she walked her dog in Kent woodland in April 2021.
(Kent Police)
An autopsy on her body found no signs of “prolonged or violent sexual abuse.”
However, Wheeler’s DNA was found on the left breast of the top of Ms James’s white cardigan, which she was wearing under a jumper and raincoat.
Mr Davies said his mother’s life was taken because of the “strange desires of a twisted individual”.
He said: “He should never see the light of day again. Why should?
“My mother only wanted to walk her dog, but her life ended this disgusting creature.”
Game warden Gavin Tucker captured this image of accused murderer Callum Wheeler walking across fields near Aylesham, Kent, carrying a blue bag with the murder weapon sticking out, according to prosecutors
(Gavin Tucker/CPS)
Mrs James’ daughter told how killing their mother had given them a ‘life sentence’.
“Losing my own parent, the woman I loved most in the world, is really terrible,” she said. “Knowing how she was brutally attacked in broad daylight after running for her life is horrifying.
“It haunts me every day of my life.”
Mrs James’ husband repeatedly broke down in tears as he told how “my life was finally complete when I married my soul mate”.
“My hopes and dreams were taken away,” he said. “And I felt that I had died.”
Additional report from the Press Association
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