Child killer gets life in jail... for second time
Freed paedophile nearly cut off dementia mum’s head
A CONVICTED child killer who almost decapitated a dementia sufferer less than a year after being released from prison was jailed for life yesterday – for the second time. Stephen Chafer, 57, also stabbed Fay Mills, 60, in the eye and fractured her skull after a row over a garden rake.
He had befriended Mrs Mills’s family after being released from prison in 2002 for the notorious sexual assault and stabbing of a three-year-old in 1979.
Lorraine Holt was killed after she wandered off while playing in the snow outside her Derby home. Chafer chanced upon the tearful child and carried her to a nearby vicarage where he sexually assaulted her and stabbed her 39 times.
Yesterday the killer received his second life sentence after a court heard that it was ‘frankly a miracle’ that Mrs Mills survived her injuries. Judge David Farrell QC ordered that Chafer serve a minimum term of 17 years. He told him he had ‘left her for dead’ and was a ‘very dangerous individual.’
The judge added: ‘The worrying aspect of this offence is, as with the previous murder, that you have attacked a particularly vulnerable person and the attack was with a knife with particular severity.’
Judge Farrell said Chafer, whom he described as a ‘serious risk to members of the public and particularly women’, would be 74 before he could be considered for release. He showed no reaction as he was led to the cells.
Chafer appeared at Cambridge Crown Court under the pseudonym Stephen Leonard, which he was using when he became a ‘trusted friend’ of the Mills family. He had
‘A very dangerous individual’
agreed to look after Mrs Mills in June while her daughter Sheila was away.
But a row broke out after Chafer asked to borrow a rake, during which, he claimed, a ‘switch flicked in his head’ and he began to attack Fay Mills at her home in Peterborough. He battered her over the head with the rake before getting a knife.
Charles Falk, prosecuting, said: ‘He inflicted multiple stab wounds all over her body and almost decapitated her.’ Chafer left Mrs Mills with a fractured skull and brain damage after stabbing her in the eye.
He only stopped when neighbour Mark Patchett and his wife came to check on Mrs Mills after hearing her screams. Chafer answered the door covered in blood, then lunged at Mr Patchett with the knife, leaving a small cut below his eye.
Last month he was convicted of the attempted murder of Mrs Mills and of common assault on Mr Patchett.
It emerged that Chafer, from Peterborough, had been returned to prison in 2013 for setting fire to his flat but was released in 2017.
Yesterday he was also given six months in jail for attacking Mr Patchett, who was awarded £750 by the judge to mark his bravery.
Sheila Mills, 32, said she had known Chafer – as Leonard – for 15 years but had no idea about his murder conviction. She criticised the probation service for failing to inform n her of his background.