Notorious criminals from around the UK jailed in July

A twisted killer who waited in the bushes with a metal bar before randomly attacking a woman walking her dog and two men who murdered their friend and put his chopped up body into suitcases were just some of the notorious criminals from across the UK locked up last month.

Other offenders facing lengthy jail terms include a mum who suffocated her son with a plastic bag and a retired pig farmer who killed his wife and dumped her body in a septic tank 40 years ago.

A student who killed one man and injured two others during a spree of random knife attacks and a bodybuilder who strangled a great grandmother to death during a psychotic episode were also put behind bars in July.

These are some of the most shocking court cases that have been widely reported in the UK in recent weeks.

The “sick and twisted” murderer of PCSO Julia James will serve at least 37 years behind bars for a “brutal and vicious” sexually motivated attack. The much-loved grandmother and mother-of-two, 53, was ambushed by Callum Wheeler, 22, in Ackholt Wood, near her home in Snowdown, Kent, as she walked her Jack Russell called Toby.

Wheeler had previously roamed the countryside carrying the large metal bar he used to beat her to death on the afternoon of April 27 last year. The killer was described by prosecutor Alison Morgan QC as a “highly sexualised” prolific user of internet pornography, who had searched for words including “raped” just two days before the attack.

She said Wheeler planned to target a lone woman and was “lying in wait in bushes” for “highly respected PCSO” Mrs James, who made a “desperate attempt to run away”. Data from her Apple watch showed that her heart rate and walking pace spiked at the point it is believed she spotted Wheeler in