Addict’s ‘trophy’ self ie with dead body at her feet
Grisly photo in murder victim’s home
CALMLY posing for a ‘selfie’, this shocking picture of smirking heroin addict Kirsty Edmondson was snapped as a murdered Scottish former teacher lay dead beneath her.
The 23-year- old call girl and her boyfriend Christopher Sawyers, 35, used mobiles to take ‘trophy photos’ and had sex in Kenneth Chapman’s bed as they lived with his corpse for up to a week.
The family of Mr Chapman, who was originally from Cockburnspath, Berwickshire, gave their consent for the release of this grisly image.
It came after career criminal Sawyers was convicted of murder and manslaughter. He was jailed for life with a minimum recommendation he serve 33 years. He admitted two thefts and seven fraud charges.
Edmondson was jailed for three years after she admitted two charges of theft and nine of fraud. She wept as she was found not guilty of murder.
At Manchester Crown Court, the pair’s behaviour was likened to ‘vultures around a corpse’.
Jurors heard how they stole the victim’s TV and computer, raided his bank account and even texted his sister pretending to be the 47year-old former history teacher and asking for a loan of £75.
Police discovered the body when they were called to the flat in Eccles, Greater Manchester.
Tests showed Mr Chapman had been injected with a lethal dose of heroin. It emerged Sawyers had realised there was ‘money to be made out of murder’ after he got away with killing a former accountant with the same drug 17 months before Mr Chapman’s death.
Passing sentence, judge Mr Justice Timothy Holroyde said: ‘ A phrase from the trial springs to mind, “the pair of you were like vultures around a corpse”.’
After the case, Mr Chapman’s sister Moreen Sinclair said: ‘ The only comfort we draw from this is that others can be safe from Chris- topher Sawyers in the future. However, we can take no comfort in the lenience of the sentence given to Kirsty Edmondson, who in our eyes abused the kindness that was shown to her by Ken.’
The court heard how Mr Chapman joined the Army at 16. He left the Forces in 1989 and went to Durham University to study history and politics. He then taught history in Chorley, Lancashire.
But in 2007 he was jailed for twoand-a-half years for sexually groom- ing a schoolgirl on the internet. He lost his job and after his release met Edmondson. He became embroiled in the drugs scene and began associating with call girls.
On December 28, 2013, Edmondson and Sawyers went back to his flat. They all took drugs but while the victim was unconscious he was given a lethal dose of heroin.
Sawyers was also found guilty of the earlier manslaughter of accountant Peter Clark, 60, who had drifted into the drugs scene.