FACE OF A KILLER
■ Teen jailed for life for Lindsay’s murder ■ Judge lifts ban on naming Rocky Price ■ His family in courtroom T-shirt protest
ATEENAGER who murdered Lindsay Birbeck before burying her in a cemetery has been jailed for life.
Rocky Marciano Price, 17, was sentenced to a minimum term of 16 years’ detention and will only be released when a parole board ‘decides he is not a danger’.
Prior to the conviction, media outlets had been banned from identifying the killer, who is due to turn 18 in February, due to a court order under Section 45 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act. However, reporting restrictions were lifted before the sentencing.
T-shirts worn by Price’s family and displayed at the sentencing hearing said: “Wrongly convicted! Free this boy. Murderer still at large.”
In a powerful victim statement read out in court, Lindsay’s daughter Sarah, 17, said Price had murdered her mother ‘for absolutely no reason.’
ATEENAGER who murdered Lindsay Birbeck before burying her in a cemetery has been jailed for life.
Rocky Marciano Price, 17, was sentenced to a minimum term of 16 years’ detention on August 14 by Judge Mrs Justice Yip and will only be released when a parole board ‘decides he is not a danger’.
Prior to the conviction, media outlets had been banned from identifying the 17-year-old, who is due to turn 18 in February, due to a court order under Section 45 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act.
However, reporting restrictions were lifted before the sentencing.
T-shirts worn by Price’s family and displayed at the sentencing hearing said: “Wrongly convicted! Free this boy. Murderer still at large.”
Price brutally attacked the mum-of-two in woods close to her home before later moving her body in a blue wheelie bin to Accrington Cemetery where he buried her naked in a shallow grave.
The high level teaching assistant was discovered wrapped in two plastic bags on August 24 last year – 12 days after she went missing. Her disappearance had prompted a huge search by police and members of the community.
On August 12, Price, of Whinney Hall Road, Accrington, was unanimously found guilty at Preston Crown Court of her murder, exactly a year on from when she disappeared, as we reported in last week’s Observer.
Sentencing on Friday, Mrs Yip said: “I have no doubt the murder was significantly premeditated. He lay in wait on the Coppice near to Lindsay’s home. The only conclusion I can draw is he was looking for a woman to kill.
“I don’t know what was on his mind at the time.
“The attack was swift and brutal. The murder of a stranger in broad daylight with no rational explanation is horrifying to all members of society.
“The random nature of the killing shows the defendant presents a very real risk to members of the public. There will no doubt be a significant amount of work and full risk assessments before the defendant’s potential release.”
The judge said Price’s mental disorder “cannot in any way excuse or explain his actions”.
She added: “I have no doubt he knew what he was doing and knew it was terribly wrong. The stalking of the other woman also demonstrates this did not arise out of a sudden loss of control or heat of the moment. He persisted with his plan to target a lone woman. It shows he had the capacity to plan and reason. The teachers said he was far better at practical tasks and he used that to set about concealing the body.
“It is an odd feature of the case the defendant chose to move the body from the Coppice. I cannot speculate as to his reasons for doing that.
“Her body was not found for 12 days. I can only imagine the agony of Lindsay’s family and friends during that time.”
David McLachlan QC said there could only be one sentence for a conviction of murder and that was life imprisonment.
The prosecutor said that there was a ‘significant element of planning or premeditation’ from Price, who then hid and attempted to dismember Lindsay’s body.
A powerful and heartbreaking victim personal statement from Lindsay’s daughter Sarah Birbeck was then read out at the sentencing hearing.
Sarah, 17, said Price murdered her mum ‘for absolutely no reason’ and added that their lives are ‘completely ruined’.
Sarah’s victim impact statement read: “We are a small, very close family and we are all suffering.
“My brother Steven and I have lost our mum. This wasn’t supposed to happen like this. We are going to grow up without her by our side.
“We will both have to get married without her there, have children and live the rest of our lives without her love and guidance.
“Steven recently won an award for apprentice of the year. He went to pick up the phone to let my mum know before the awful realisation that she is no longer here. She is gone for ever.
“Her brother Darryl, my uncle, is really struggling. They grew up very close and remained that way. When he married his wife Tracy, mum sorted out a lot of the arrangements and my uncle said this was one of the best days of his life, mainly thanks to her.
“My grandad has lost a daughter, he feels that you should not outlive your own child. My dad Tim was married to my mum; although they had separated and I know he is finding it very difficult.
“He is now a single parent and having to make lots of decisions without my mum for guidance.
“I know he feels very sad for Steven and I that we have lost our mum and there is nothing he can do to take our pain away.
“My mum was a higher level teaching assistant and the irony is she would have taught boys like the defendant and would have tried her best to help him.
“To know now that he murdered her for absolutely no reason is heartbreaking and has not sunk in yet. Not within me or other members of my family. The fact that he has made us come to court and listen to every graphic detail of my mum’s murder when he could have saved us this pain by pleading guilty is unforgivable. All our lives are completely ruined and I don’t see how we will ever recover as a family as the void that has been left will never be filled.”
Price, who has autism and learning difficulties, had admitted dragging the bin from the Coppice with Lindsay inside, across Burnley Road to the cemetery.
But he had claimed he was not involved in her death and that a “stranger” had approached him in the area and promised him “a lot of money” if he disposed of the body.
Defence barrister Mark Fenhalls QC said Price has significant learning and communication difficulties and other vulnerabilities.
He said: “It’s one of the truly unusual features of this case that Mr Price concealed her body in the graveyard rather than up in the Coppice somewhere. He has an IQ of only 65 and has the learning and communication difficulties that he does.
“Prior to this incident you heard evidence from the teachers that he had never given a shred of concern about a tendency towards violence or harming anybody else.
“All of that is reflective of a very different child from the one facing sentence for the conviction he received. He will be 18 next year. Incarceration for him will be very significantly more challenging for him than the vast majority of others.
“Nothing that will happen to Rocky Price will plug the hole Lindsay’s family now feel. The public can be reassured that the system is involved in assessing and reviewing safeguards in the future.”
In a previous hearing on August 13 Mrs Yip lifted reporting restrictions following an application by the Observer and Lancs Live.
She said: “There is a strong public interest in full and unrestricted reporting of what is plainly an exceptional case. The real public interest exists now at the time of conviction and sentence.
“Continuing reporting restrictions would substantially and considerably restrict the freedom of the press.”
The defence had opposed the application due to Price’s vulnerabilities. The court heard that Price has already been subject to two ‘attacks’ while on remand at HMP Wetherby.