Man jailed for murdering 16-year-old girl said 'I like killing'

The body of Leonne Weeks was found on the bank of a canal. Photo / Facebook

A man stabbed a 16-year-old girl to death because he "liked killing", a British court has been told.

Shea Peter Heeley was jailed for at least 24-and-a-half years at Sheffield Crown Court today for the murder of Leonne Weeks, who he stabbed 28 times, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Heeley, 19, lured Leonne to a secluded spot in Dinnington, near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, in January last year and stabbed her "for no reason at all", prosecutor Tim Roberts QC said.

The court heard that after his arrest, Heeley said he had always known that he would kill someone, and later told staff in a secure mental hospital: "I like that I have done it, I just do. I like killing."

Heeley, of Doe Quarry Lane, Dinnington, admitted murder last month. As he was led from court, someone in the packed public gallery shouted: "Do us all a favour and hang yourself."

Judge Paul Watson QC said Heeley had befriended Leonne about a year before, as they were both from Dinnington, and they had been at a party together two days before the killing, on January 15, 2017.

He deliberately targeted her to satisfy his interest in killing and invited her to a dark alleyway.

The judge said: "In short, this was a pre-planned, brutal and pitiless killing of an innocent young girl who had her whole life before her."

He said Leonne's family will have to "live with that agonising loss and the living nightmare of your evil crime for the rest of their lives".

The judge said she was a "lovely, lively, funny and caring young girl".

Prosecutor Tim Roberts QC said Heeley had told a nurse in custody "he had always known that he would kill someone from an early age".

He said that he "did not feel anything".

Heeley said: "I'll go to prison or hospital, but probably prison. If that's what it takes to stop me killing people, that's where I need to go."

Roberts said: "He said he could hear her screams.

"He grabbed her by the throat and stabbed her. He said he had deliberately selected that place to meet her as it was secluded and he intended to harm her. He said he heard voices telling him to kill her and he had demons inside him."

Shea Peter Heeley. Photo / South Yorkshire Police

The court heard that Heeley had not been diagnosed with a mental illness, but may have an emerging personality disorder.

Kent QC, defending, said his client told staff at Rampton: "I like that I have done it, I just do. I like killing."

He said Heeley told prison staff: "Knowing I have killed someone satisfied me."

He said he also had fantasises about killing all the time and "hitting people on the head with hammers", which "cheered him up".

Speaking outside court, Detective Chief Inspector Martin Tate said: "I don't think we'll ever really understand why he did it.

"He's planned murder for some time. He's researched on the internet how to commit murder, how to get away with destroying forensic evidence."

He said: "But I don't think we'll ever really understand why he is so dangerous, what he is thinking and why anyone would seek to do this."

The court heard that Heeley had confessed to six other murders, including one committed before he was born, but these are all thought to be fantasies.

Tate said he did not believe he was responsible for other killings.