Sadistic killer who strangled woman had 171 convictions

Athug with a string of convictions for violence against women was jailed for life yesterday for killing a mother-of-two after meeting her on a night out.

Richard Bailey was out on licence from another offence when he strangled and smothered Charlotte Teeling.

The ‘callous’ killer had 171 previous convictions, including many violent offences against women.

He then used the 33-year-old’s bank card to try to buy food and drink in bars and restaurants over eight days while her body lay at his Birmingham flat.

Bailey, 41, tried to claim Teeling’s death was accidental.

But jurors at Birmingham Crown Court rejected his account and found him guilty of murder. Teeling had suffered injuries to her neck and mouth and a bone fracture near the base of her tongue.

As he was jailed for a minimum of 29 years, details of Bailey’s violent past emerged. The court heard he started offending as a teenager and had been jailed for common assault in 2000 after punching his then-partner, using a cushion to avoid leaving bruises.

In 2002, he was jailed for 54 months for robbery and again in 2006 for affray and common assault after grabbing a woman around the throat during an argument over drugs.

Later the same year, he was given a 42-month sentence in Coventry after being classed as a dangerous offender for punching a woman who had already been knocked to the floor.

Jonas Hankin, QC, prosecuting, said that “all of the offences of violence were perpetrated against women and, in most cases, women in vulnerable situations.”

He added that Bailey was last jailed in August 2016 for burglary and theft but was on licence at the time of the murder.

Bailey showed no emotion as he was sentenced and was led away to shouts of ‘ beast’ and ‘scum’ from the public gallery.

He had slept on a mattress in the same room as Teeling’s body. Ruling that the murder involved “sexual or sadistic” conduct, judge Patrick Thomas told Bailey: “You told the police that Charlotte asked you to squeeze her neck.

‘Even if that were the case – and I do not accept that it was – it is manifest that she did not consent to being injured, let alone killed. I find that you were applying force to Charlotte’s neck for your own satisfaction – and that you covered her mouth to prevent her crying out.”

Commenting on the fact that Bailey left Teeling’s body in his bedroom for more than a week, the judge added: “Your actions in making use of Charlotte’s bank card after you killed her demonstrate an extreme degree of callousness.

“So does the way you conducted yourself in those eight days. We know that you spent much of the following night in bars and fast-food restaurants, trying to use Charlotte’s card and occasionally succeeding.”

The court was told that Teeling, who had lived on the Isle of Wight and also at a women’s refuge in Worcester, met Bailey shortly after leaving a Birmingham nightclub at about 5am on February 23.

In a victim impact statement read to the court by prosecutor Jonas Hankin QC, Teeling’s mother Diane said: “Time will not heal the heartache and sadness that Charlotte is no longer the life and soul of our family.

“It is every mother’s worst nightmare. There will always be one person missing from any family gathering. Not only did he take Charlotte’s life, he stripped her of dignity in death. Every day I am haunted by the panic and fear that Charlotte experienced as the life was squeezed out of her.”