Triple killer Brian Whitelock sentenced for stripping 71-year-old neighbour Wendy Buckney naked and murdering her

A man who stripped his 71-year-old neighbour naked and murdered her in a "sadistic" attack in her own home has been told he will never be freed from prison.

A judge sentencing Brian Whitelock sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility for parole for the murder of Wendy Buckney, who he beat and stabbed to death, inflicting more than 70 separate injuries and leaving her battered body face down in a pool of blood. Whitelock was out of prison on licence for a previous murder when he attacked.

In the aftermath of the fatal assault in August 2022, Whitelock confessed to neighbours and police officers that he had killed Miss Buckney but later changed his story and said he had seen mysterious men outside the property on the night in question, and he later denying murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility, claiming he could not remember what had happened and that he was suffering with a brain injury as a result of a fall. However, psychiatric evidence put before the jury contradicted his claim, saying the most likely cause of his behaviour was drug intoxication. A jury at Swansea Crown Court took less than half-an-hour to convict 57-year-old Whitelock of murder in a trial at which he represented himself having sacked his legal team. You can read out coverage of the dramatic trial here

Prosecutor Christopher Rees KC told the jury it was the Crown's case that Whitelock, who lived opposite his alleged victim in Tanycoed Road in Clydach, murdered a vulnerable woman in a "sustained and vicious attack" which had a "sexual element". He said the defendant had a long history of drug addiction and a "propensity to use unlawful, explosive, and extreme violence".

The trial heard how Miss Buckney moved into her flat in