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30/08/2013
Strangler To Serve A Minimum Of 19 Years
A man who strangled a pensioner to death 25 years ago has been sentenced to a minimum of 19 years behind bars.
Samuel Dunwoody, 52, was stealing money from Margaret Telford's house in north Belfast and killed her to make sure there was no witnesses.
DNA was found under the fingernails of the victim, aged 68, after police revisited the case.
Judge Corinne Philpott QC said: "You killed someone who did you no harm and offered you kindness and you thought you got away with it."
Ms Telford was found strangled to death with a ligature at her home on Twaddell Avenue by a shopkeeper on 4 February 1988.
DNA samples from the victim found a match with Dunwoody, from Birmingham.
The murderer had a string of convictions for assault, actual bodily harm and battery. He also attacked the same woman three times.
Judge Philpott sentenced him for murder at Belfast Crown Court.
(CD/JP)
Samuel Dunwoody, 52, was stealing money from Margaret Telford's house in north Belfast and killed her to make sure there was no witnesses.
DNA was found under the fingernails of the victim, aged 68, after police revisited the case.
Judge Corinne Philpott QC said: "You killed someone who did you no harm and offered you kindness and you thought you got away with it."
Ms Telford was found strangled to death with a ligature at her home on Twaddell Avenue by a shopkeeper on 4 February 1988.
DNA samples from the victim found a match with Dunwoody, from Birmingham.
The murderer had a string of convictions for assault, actual bodily harm and battery. He also attacked the same woman three times.
Judge Philpott sentenced him for murder at Belfast Crown Court.
(CD/JP)
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