Bernadette’s stepdad jailed – but won’t say where body is
14 months after she was last seen, murdered 17-year-old still untraced
AN ODD-JOB man who killed his stepdaughter was still refusing to reveal where he left her body as he began a life sentence yesterday.
Scott Walker, 51, murdered Bernadette Walker, 17, after she accused him of sexually abusing her.
Bernadette’s mother Sarah, 38, was jailed for six years for concocting a story to explain her disappearance and hacking into her social media to make it appear she was still alive.
Sentencing the pair, Mrs Justice McGowan said Scott’s refusal to divulge where Bernadette’s remains were meant ‘she can’t be shown the respect she deserves’.
She added: ‘Cruellest of all, it’s likely to mean some members of her family and friends will go on hoping she might be alive and might someday come back into their lives. Each defendant was a willing party in that enterprise.’
Scott was sentenced to at least 32 years after being convicted of murder at the end of a six-week trial at Cambridge Crown Court.
Sarah, who was convicted of perverting the course of justice, was told that she was ‘the guiding mind behind the detail of the plan’ who had shown a ‘level of selfishness and self-interest that is quite unbelievable’. Neither defendant showed any emotion as they were taken down to the cells.
Bernadette was last seen alive on July 18 last year when Scott collected her from his parents’ house.
The photography student had stayed there the previous night for things to ‘calm down’ after telling her mother about the abuse.
Phone records showed Scott’s mobile, which was ‘usually in regular use’, was switched off for 91 minutes from 11.23am.
The prosecution said this was when he killed Bernadette, who called him ‘Dad’ despite not being his biological daughter. When Scott’s phone reconnected to the network, the first call he made was to mother-of-ten Sarah, who had taken his surname despite not being married to him.
In the nine-minute call the pair ‘concocted’ their story to explain Bernadette’s disappearance.
Cambridgeshire Police were informed she was missing only on July 21, with Walker telling them she had stormed out of his car after he pulled over to discuss her allegations. Detectives became suspicious and used the couple’s mobile phone records for search operations but failed to uncover the teenager’s whereabouts.
The jury was told the pair lived together despite Sarah being in another relationship.
Incriminating evidence found by police included diary entries made by the teenager.
One, from the day before she went missing, said: ‘Told my mum about my dad and the abuse. She called me a liar and threatened to kill me if I told the police.’
Bernadette had complained of being fondled in the games room of the family’s council house in Peterborough and of secret filming in the shower and her bedroom.
Her brother Anthony said his stepfather, who had a conviction for harassment and a caution for breaching a non-molestation order protecting a previous partner, should never be released from prison. ‘I will keep searching because she’s out there,’ added the 19-year-old.
‘Secret filming in the shower’