Trusted friend raped and killed ‘caring soul’ after a night out
A MAN has been convicted of raping and murdering a female friend who had trusted the killer to walk her home, then hiding her body in a brook.
Wesley Streete, who towered over Keeley Bunker, his victim, dumped her body face down in a stream in a nearby park before trying to conceal his crime by covering her with branches.
He repeatedly lied about what had happened to the 20-year-old on Sept 19 last year, after they returned to their hometown of Tamworth following a night out in Birmingham to celebrate her birthday.
Stafford Crown Court was told Streete changed his account at least four times before trial. He initially claimed he left Ms Bunker to walk home alone, before alleging at trial that he had “accidentally killed her” during consensual sex in Wigginton Park. His phone showed him in the park near to the scene of the murder, at the relevant time, and making repeated visits back to where he had hidden the body.
Jurors took just over eight hours to convict the 20-year-old yesterday.
Streete, of no fixed address but previously of St Austell Close, Tamworth, was also convicted of two other counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and a charge of sexual activity with a child. These further offences were against three other victims and were said to have happened in previous years. He will be sentenced tomorrow.
Ms Bunker’s sister had described her as “one of the most vibrant, caring and beautiful souls this earth has ever seen”.
Her uncle, Jason Brown, discovered her partially submerged body during a massive search effort involving family, friends and police officers.
Finding her body by torchlight, he told jurors how he saw hair and “an arm with a bracelet on”, and “just started shouting: ‘No’.”
A witness described Mr Brown’s cries as “the most horrendous scream or shout I’ve ever heard in my life”.