My songs were lost in prison, whines sex killer
A MURDERER has posted an online rant against prison staff, claiming they deleted a ‘back catalogue’ of songs he composed in prison.
Graham Coutts was jailed for life after strangling classical musician Jane Longhurst, 31, with a pair of tights and setting fire to her body.
The 48-year-old salesman, who is originally from Fife, denied murdering Miss Longhurst at his home in Brighton, Sussex, in March 2003.
However, after two trials he was found guilty and sentenced to a minimum of 26 years behind bars.
Aspiring musician Coutts has now complained in a blog that recordings of 29 of his songs were ‘wiped’ by prison staff.
He said the tracks vanished when he was transferred to HMP Wakefield in 2012 after serving part of his sentence in two other jails.
He wrote: ‘This work was solely created and produced by me over several hundred hours.
‘Many of these songs contained highly complex... arrangements of drums, keyboards, strings and brass; and, audio recorded vocals, multi-part harmonies and acoustic and electric guitars. All of this work is irreplaceable.’
He added: ‘After I was transferred to HMP Wakefield in January 2012, I submitted a request for HMP Frankland to forward my work.
‘They refused. Despite me being the owner of this work (under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988) I have recently learnt that HMP Frankland have “removed/ deleted” all of my six years’ worth of work from their computers.’
Coutts writes his blog in prison and sends it out to friends, or hands it to them during visits, who then publish it on his website.
In other ramblings, the killer complained that he ‘really misses gigging’ but revealed that he is allowed to have a guitar in his cell and holds weekly ‘band nights’.
During his trial at Lewes Crown Court in 2004, it emerged that Coutts, who was obsessed with violent pornography, hid Miss Longhurst’s body in his garden shed for more than a week before moving it to a self-storage centre.
The court was told he kept the body as a ‘trophy’ and visited the storage unit ten times in three weeks. Coutts then moved the body to woodland and set it on fire.
He was arrested after police found the remains and searched the storage unit where he had been caught on CCTV footage.
Prosecutors said that Coutts attacked Miss Longhurst – a friend of his girlfriend – after inviting her to his house for a cup of tea.
The court heard how Coutts wrapped a pair of tights around his victim’s neck and strangled her. He claimed she died after a sex game went wrong but this was rejected by the jury.
Judge Richard Brown, sentencing Coutts to life, told him: ‘In seeking perverted sexual gratification by way of your sordid and evil fantasies, you have taken her life and devastated the lives of those she loved and of those who loved her.’
His original conviction was quashed on appeal in July 2006 but he was found guilty again following a re-trial at the Old Bailey in 2007.
The case sparked a Government crackdown on websites containing images of ‘extreme pornography’ after a campaign by Miss Longhurst’s mother, Liz.