TOT KILLER MURDERED IN HIS CELL
Spice session...then horror
A PRISONER stabbed his baby-killer cellmate with shards from a smashed aftershave bottle after they had smoked spice together.
Rapist John Westland, 29, who then strangled Liam Deane as he lay “incapacitated” on his bunk, was given a life sentence yesterday for murder.
Afterwards, Westland – in jail for a violent sex attack on a 53-year-old woman as a teenager – told police: “I murdered him because he is a sex offender.”
But in court, he denied responsibility for his 22-yearold cellmate’s injuries.
He claimed Deane had been bullied and received death threats after being sentenced to life for killing his two-day-old daughter.
Danger
Officers found Deane dead in his bunk after Westland pressed an emergency buzzer at Armley jail, Leeds.
A pathologist said his wounds were not typical of self-inflicted injury.
Peter Moulson QC, prosecuting, said: “Mr Deane was found dead because someone had assaulted him. Obviously, there is only one candidate.”
Westland must serve at least 19 years and was told he would only be released if he was no longer considered a danger to the public.
Sentencing him at Leeds Crown Court, Judge Rodney Jameson, QC, said: “You told the jury you believed Liam Deane was a sex offender.
“He was not. He committed a very serious crime but admitted it and was trying to come to terms with it.
“It is an unfortunate part of prison life that those guilty of very serious crimes try to find another inmate to look down on.
“Being suspected of a sexual offence was, in your view, reason enough to choose Liam for that role.
“Given the nature of your offences, others might find that rank hypocrisy.”