Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
‘It won’t bring mum back – but women will be safe from him’
The daughter of Julia James says women will now be safe from her killer.
Addressing media outside Canterbury Crown Court after the hearing, Bethan Coles and her family welcomed Wheeler’s life sentence.
“We’re pleased with 37 years, although clearly it’ll never bring my mum back,” she said.
“What it does do is keep women safe from him and what he may do in the future. So we’re just very grateful for all the hard work and dedication of all the police, [prosecutor] Alison Morgan, and everybody.”
Her comments were echoed by Julia’s son, Patrick.
Fighting back tears, Julia’s husband Paul James said: “Now that this guy can’t hurt anyone else is a massive relief for us.
“If that was Julia’s sacrifice, to save other people, then we’re happy.”
Asked how difficult the past 15 months have been, Mr James added: “It literally just ripped us all apart.”
In a statement read at the sentencing hearing, Mr James said his wife’s death had left his life “empty”.
He told the judge: “My hopes and dreams were taken. I truly felt I died too.
“My life has been jolted by the devastation and trauma.
“We went everywhere together. How do I do these things alone?”
“My life is now empty. I want to know why this has happened. I cannot and still do not sleep at night. What do I do without her?”
Patrick branded Wheeler a “sick, twisted individual”, and urged the judge to hand down a whole-life sentence.
He added: “The one person I would turn to in my darkest hour has now gone. If this individual got 30 years he’d be out the same age as my mum.
“All my family has been given a life sentence, a life without my mum. There’s no reason he should be released in the same way there’s no release from the pain and suffering he has caused.”
Bethan said the nature of her mum’s death “haunts me every single moment of every single day,” with the thoughts of her “being terrified running for her life before being brutally murdered unavoidable”.
She added: “My life has changed beyond measure to lose my own parent - the woman I loved most in the world.”
Det Supt Gavin Moss said: “Callum Wheeler has demonstrated that he is an incredibly dangerous individual, reflected by his actions, that he subjected my colleague Julia James to the most horrific of injuries.
“I am reassured, and so should the public be, that Callum Wheeler is now off the streets for a significant length of time.
“I’m immensely proud of the police officers and police staff from Kent Police, and indeed from further afield, who came to our assistance in order to bring Callum Wheeler to justice.
“I’m absolutely delighted for the family, who have seen justice prevail.”
Kent Police Chief Constable Alan Pughsley said Julia’s death had a “profound effect” on her friends, family and colleagues.
“Callum Wheeler showed no remorse for his actions and put her family through an upsetting trial,” he said.
“No one should ever feel unsafe or be subjected to violence, there is never an excuse, and we know that this tragic event was deeply unsettling for Julia’s local community too.”