Loner, 22, who battered PCSO Julia James to death in woods is jailed

Porn-obsessed loner, 22, is jailed for 37 years for ‘sexually motivated’ murder of PCSO Julia James: Devastated family blast ‘twisted’ killer who prowled woods and beat mother-of-two to death with a railway jack as she walked her beloved dog

  • Callum Wheeler used a railway jack to beat mother-of-two Mrs James to death 
  • Jury of eight women and four men took 73 minutes to decide Wheeler was guilty 
  • He has now been sentenced to 37 years in prison at Canterbury Crown Court  

Callum Wheeler (pictured), 22, used a railway jack – a tool used to lift train tracks – to beat mother-of-two Mrs James to death as she walked in fields and woodland near the back of her home in Snowdown

The porn-obsessed loner who battered PCSO Julia James to death as she walked her dog in the woods has been jailed for 37 years.  

Callum Wheeler, 22, used a railway jack – a tool used to lift train tracks – to beat mother-of-two Mrs James to death as she walked in fields and woodland near the back of her home in Snowdown.

A jury of eight women and four men took just 73 minutes to decide Wheeler, also described as ‘angry, violent and strange’, had ambushed the 53-year-old mother-of-two in Ackholt Wood near her home in Snowdown, Kent, at around 2.30pm on April 27 last year. 

He was found guilty on May 16 at Canterbury Crown Court. And today he had to be carried into the dock with handcuffs on to hear his life sentence which he must serve for a minimum of 37 years. 

Wheeler sat with his head bowed as his victim’s family, including her husband Paul James, daughter Bethan Coles and son Patrick Davis, read their emotional victim impact statements.

Mr James said: ‘My hopes and dreams were taken. I truly felt I died too. My life has been jolted by the devastation and trauma. We went everywhere together. How do I do these things alone?

‘My life is now empty. I want to know why this has happened. I cannot and still do not sleep at night. What do I do without her?’ 

Her son Patrick said: ‘The one person I would turn to in my darkest hour has now gone. If this individual got 30 years he’d be out the same age as my mum.

‘All my family has been given a life sentence, a life without my mum. There’s no reason he should be released in the same way there’s no release from the pain and suffering he has caused. ‘

He said: ‘He should never see the light of day again. Why should he?

‘My mum only wanted to walk her dog but had her life ended by this disgusting creature. I will not refer to him as a human being.’

On arrest, Wheeler told officers ‘sometimes I do things that I cannot control’ and ‘you can’t go into the woods and expect to be safe’. Pictured: Julia James 

He and Mrs James’ daughter told how their mother’s murder has given them a ‘life sentence’.

‘I have struggled to find the right words to describe how it has devastated my life and the lives of my family,’ she said. My life has changed beyond measure.

‘To lose my own parent, the woman I loved the most in the world is truly awful.

‘To know how she was brutally attacked in broad daylight having run for her life is horrific. It haunts me every day of my life.’

Mrs James’ widower repeatedly broke down in tears as he told how ‘my life was finally complete when I married my soulmate’.

‘My hopes and dreams were taken,’ he said when his wife was murdered.

‘I actually felt I died too.’

Wheeler was seen roaming around the countryside with the weapon the day before the 53-year-old died, and in the days after as hundreds of police officers scoured the area for clues.

On arrest, Wheeler told officers ‘sometimes I do things that I cannot control’ and ‘you can’t go into the woods and expect to be safe’.

He also told a member of police staff that he would return to the woodland and rape and kill a woman, and that Mrs James had deserved to die.

A jury of eight women and four men at Canterbury Crown Court took less than one hour and 10 minutes to find him guilty of Mrs James’s murder.

Wheeler, who is being held at Broadmoor high security psychiatric hospital in Berkshire, did not react when the guilty verdict was delivered.

Julia James, 53, died from head injuries near Ackholt Wood, close to her home in Snowdown in Kent, on April 27 last year

A jury of eight women and four men took just 73 minutes to decide Wheeler (pictured), also described as ‘angry, violent and strange’, had ambushed the 53-year-old mother-of-two in Ackholt Wood near her home in Snowdown, Kent, at around 2.30pm on April 27 last year

When asked to stand to hear the verdict, Wheeler did not stand himself but was instead held up by members of staff in the dock.

Wheeler was so isolated he spent most of his time in his bedroom, and barely knew his brother.

He had no known friends, few numbers stored in his mobile phone and would spend most of his time alone in his bedroom.

The jury heard that Wheeler, who sat in the dock unbuttoning his shirt and staring at the victim’s family, accessed a number of pornography websites in the days before and after Mrs James’ death and looked up rape.


Bethan Coles, daughter of PCSO Julia James, and Mrs James’s husband Paul, outside Canterbury Crown Court in Kent, where Callum Wheeler will be sentenced for her murder. 

Mrs James who had said Wheeler was a ‘really weird dude’ after encountering him one day and avoided the route she saw him on.

But later after feeling safe again returned to walking in the woods.

Wheeler lived with his father and one brother in Aylesham after he moved from London two years before Mrs James died.

Police said he had no job at the time and was not studying after he left school around the age of 15 with no formal qualifications.

Mrs James’s daughter Bethan Coles, 33, said the trial has been ‘overwhelming’.

Describing Wheeler, she said: ‘I think he’s just a vile excuse for a human being.’

Patrick Davies, son of PCSO Julia James, outside Canterbury Crown Court in Kent, where Callum Wheeler will be sentenced for her murder

She said he ‘clearly is a threat to women’, adding that the guilty verdict is ‘really important for the safety of people in the community’. 

Ms Coles added her mother’s husband Paul ‘made my mum really, really happy’.

Meanwhile, Mrs James’s husband Paul paid tribute to her in a tearful statement after 

Speaking outside court, Julia James’s tearful husband Paul James paid tribute to his wife, saying he was ‘so proud’ of all the people she had helped in her work, particularly victims of domestic violence.

Mr James said: ‘She just helped everybody, she just couldn’t do enough.’

A jury took just 73 minutes to decide Callum Wheeler (pictured), also described as ‘angry, violent and strange’, had ambushed the 53-year-old mother of two

Pictured: The family of PCSO Julia James holding hands outside Canterbury Crown Court in Kent. Paul James (husband, second left), Patrick Davies (son, centre) and Bethan Coles (daughter, right)

He added: ‘She was just amazing, I was so proud of her. The work she did was just amazing, to help so many other people, women who were in danger from men, bad men.’

Kent Police Chief Constable Alan Pughsley said: ‘We may never know why Callum Wheeler went out and committed such a reprehensible crime that day but I hope that Julia’s family can take some comfort that he has been found responsible. 

Wheeler, who lived in Sunshine Corner Avenue, Aylesham, with his father John, and has no previous convictions, had accepted responsibility for killing Mrs James on day one of his trial last week but denied murder at Canterbury Crown Court.

The prosecution said the ‘extremely violent and sustained’ attack with a metal, 3kg railway jack was not ‘a momentary or spontaneous act of rage’ but one which he had planned over ‘many weeks’.

Having lay in wait for a lone, vulnerable female, he confronted 53-year-old Mrs James, who was off duty and not in uniform, at a spot where it was said she had seen him two months earlier and had even described him to her husband Paul as ‘a really weird dude’.

He had no connection to the mother-of-two, and offered no explanation for what he had done when questioned by the police. 

Mrs James tried to run away but fell to the ground after either tripping in her wellington boots or from the first blow from the jack.

The court heard as she lay face-down on a bridle path at the edge of a field, Wheeler touched her clothing, including the breast area of her vest top worn underneath a coat and jumper, before repeatedly striking her to her head.

An image of the PCSO in the clothes she was wearing on the day she was killed 

She suffered such severe injuries – her skull was said to have been ‘obliterated’ – that a pathologist described them as ‘completely unsurvivable’ even with immediate medical intervention and among the worst he had seen in his 12-year career.

Mrs James’ body was found about an hour-and-a-half later by a family out on a walk. Her Jack Russell Toby was nearby, still wearing his lead and unharmed.

Her phone, on which she had sent her last message about five minutes before she was murdered, was ringing.

Police searching around the Spinney Lane area on May 6, 2021

Forensic officers at an address in Aylesham, Kent, May 8, 2021

The bloodstained railway jack was found propped against a wall in Wheeler’s bedroom on his arrest 10 days later.

He was seen roaming around the countryside with the weapon the day before the 53-year-old died, and in the days after as hundreds of police officers scoured the area for clues.

On arrest, Wheeler told officers ‘sometimes I do things that I cannot control’ and ‘you can’t go into the woods and expect to be safe’.

Killer Callum Wheeler was an isolated ‘loner’ 

Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Callum Wheeler, May 13, 2021

Callum Wheeler was described as ‘a complete and utter loner’ who spied on police as they investigated the death of the woman he had killed.

The 22-year-old had no known friends, few numbers stored in his mobile phone and would spend most of his time alone in his bedroom.

In his trial, the jury heard that he accessed a number of pornography websites in the days before and after Julia James’ death and looked up rape.

He was so isolated that he barely knew his own brother, police said.

Wheeler, his father and one brother had moved to the Kent village of Aylesham from London two years before Mrs James died, after Wheeler’s parents separated and his mother stayed in the capital. He also had another brother.

He was known to go and watch football at the local sports centre on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and played computer games, but had no job and was not studying at the time of Mrs James’s death.

Police said that he had left school around the age of 15 and had no formal qualifications.

Senior investigating officer Detective Superintendent Gavin Moss said: ‘I would describe him as a complete and utter loner. Normally in our investigations we get into the absolute detail of people, and we find out how they live their life.

‘He spent most of his time watching TV in his bedroom. He had no friends, normally we’re able to explore about associates. His mobile telephone had very few contacts on it.’

Investigators also believe from sightings around the area that Wheeler was watching as officers scoured the area for clues, following the death of one of their colleagues at his hands.

Mrs James was beaten to death as she walked her dog near Ackholt Wood in Kent.

The investigation was one of the biggest undertaken by Kent Police in recent years, with 1,100 officers and staff involved in the painstaking inquiry.

Mr Moss said that a few days after the killing in nearby Spinney Lane ‘a witness saw a person she described as Callum Wheeler looking down towards the direction where the officers were working, watching’.

He believes Wheeler had been doing the same thing when he was photographed the day after Mrs James died on April 28, still carrying the weapon in his blue holdall.

Investigators are still no clearer as to why Wheeler packed the railway jack in his bag, walked around the Kent countryside and killed an innocent woman.

There was no known connection to his victim and Wheeler told police he did not know her, and he had no history of violence.

During the trial, jurors heard that Wheeler said Mrs James was a ‘copper’ who ‘deserved to die’ while he was remanded in custody at Maidstone police station.

He also tried to pull down his trousers to masturbate while in a cell, prosecutors said.

During his trial for murder at Canterbury Crown Court he behaved erratically in the dock, at times sitting hunched over or staring blankly into space.

He was warned by judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb not to talk as the prosecution began opening their case, and in the final stages of the trial had to be carried in to the dock.

The jury heard there were no signs of a ‘sustained or violent’ sexual attack on Mrs James, according to the pathologist who carried out a post-mortem examination, though it was not completely ruled out.

Nothing was taken from Mrs James – only her house key has never been found. 

He also told a member of police staff that he would return to the woodland and rape and kill a woman.

The court heard he later remarked while in police custody that Mrs James had ‘deserved to die’ for being ‘a f***ing fat c**t’.

He also exposed himself to a female police officer in his cell, and chillingly warned custody staff he would ‘knock other women to the ground and rape and kill’ if released, adding ‘you can’t go into the woods and expect to be safe’.

Analysis of his laptop revealed the trawling of numerous pornographic websites in the week before the murder, and a Google search of ‘rape’ just two days before, Canterbury Crown Court, Kent, was told.

Although no one witnessed the fatal attack, Mrs James’ Apple smartwatch recorded the exact time and location she was confronted by Wheeler, with a ‘spike’ in her heart rate from 97bpm to 145bpm, a change in pace and a ‘sudden detour’ off her usual route.

The GPS data proved crucial to the murder hunt, as did dashcam footage of Wheeler being challenged by gamekeeper Gavin Tucker who came face-to-face with him walking in a field the day after the murder.

Despite a heavy police presence and cordon in the area, Wheeler had ventured out armed with the weapon he had used to cave in the Kent Police officer’s skull.

As well as the railway jack being stained with Mrs James’ blood, his DNA was discovered on one of the PCSO’s boots, her Berghaus jacket and her vest top. Her blood was also discovered on his Nike trainers.

Other vital evidence came from almost 7,000 hours of CCTV footage downloaded by police from homes, businesses and dashcams which included images and timings of Wheeler in the vicinity of Ackholt Wood.

He did not give evidence however, none was called on his behalf by his defence team, and none of the prosecution evidence was challenged.

Wheeler is currently held in high security Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire and, although flanked in the dock throughout his trial by four staff members, no psychiatric or medical evidence was called in his defence.

Due to the random nature of the murder, police believe Wheeler may have killed again if he had not been arrested.

Referring to the extensive police operation involving 1,100 officers and staff, senior investigating officer Det Supt Gavin Moss of the Kent and Essex Crime Directorate said: ‘I can never say what was going on in his mind, but the level of resources used was justified because we cannot know that he wouldn’t have done it again.’

Police have said he dropped out of school at the age of 15 – failing to achieve his GCSEs – and moved to Aylesham from southeast London around two years before the murder to live with his father after his parents split up.

He was unemployed, not studying and described by DS Moss as ‘a complete and utter loner’ whose life consisted of watching TV and playing video games in his bedroom.

He is believed to have no friends, had barely any contacts in his mobile phone, and not even a relationship with his brother.

But residents in the neighbouring rural villages of Aylesham and Snowdown had seen him regularly watching a local football team train twice a week and, more sinisterly, ‘roaming’ surrounding fields and woodland in the months leading up to the murder, at times with the murder weapon.

The court heard others had seen Wheeler in the hours before Mrs James’ death and in the immediate aftermath carrying a large holdall from which the jack, covered in a carrier bag, was protruding.

One woman living near Aylesham village later told police how she had ‘felt uncomfortable’ when she saw him in an alley outside her home between 12noon and 1pm on April 27.

Ten days before the murder two other female PCSOs had gone to his home in response to an abandoned 999 call he had made. But he refused to talk to them, laughing as he branded them phoney and ‘not real police’.

Police were yet to reach his home as part of their house-to-house inquiries when he was arrested on May 7. He was aggressive and abusive to officers who had to force their way into his barricaded bedroom.

He demanded who had ‘ratted’ on him but also remarked ‘Sometimes I do things that I can’t control’ and spoke about wanting the death sentence.

Source: Read Full Article

Previous post ‘Highly sexualised’ predator who murdered PCSO Julia James in woods ambush is jailed for life | The Sun
Next post Do I need a TV licence? What you can watch for free plus Netflix rules | The Sun