Pensioner sex murderer gets life

A MAN who strangled an elderly widow to death, after going to her home to ask for sex, has been jailed for life.

Patrick Curran, 38, was told he would spend at least 18 years behind bars for the sexually-motivated murder of OAP Joan Roddam.

Mrs Roddam, 74, who lived alone at her remote bungalow in Cornwall, was found dead in the field behind her home on November 8, 2003.

Wearing only a nightdress, bed jacket and dressing gown, her body was found underneath an upturned wheelbarrow and covered in a blanket.

Curran, then 27, was arrested and questioned in 2004 and again in 2014 when he was charged with her murder following the reopening of the inquiry by Devon and Cornwall Police.

Truro Crown Court heard that Curran had images saved on his computer depicting elderly women having sex with young men.

The defendant, of Delabole, was convicted last week of a single count of murder following a two-week trial, which he chose not to attend or be represented at.

Judge Graham Cottle had adjourned sentencing to see whether Curran would be prepared to attend court but again he was not present.

The court heard that Curran passed a note to prison staff this week, in which he said: “I am an innocent man, I don’t think I received a fair trial.”

Imposing a life sentence, Judge Cottle said Curran’s computer records showed he had accessed a “very considerable number of websites” containing pornographic images of “mature and very mature women” engaged in sexual activity with men in their 20s.

The judge praised the police for their determination in bringing Mrs Roddam’s murderer to justice, adding: “This murder was sexually motivated, not in the sense that you sexually assaulted Joan Roddam – in the sense it explains why you went to her home.” STRANGLED: Joan Roddam was killed by Patrick Curran