A TORMENTED mum today slammed a "pure evil" killer who looked her in the eye after strangling her teen daughter.
Lily Sullivan, 18, was discovered half-naked in a pond in Pembroke, Wales, after she rejected Lewis Haines' sexual advances.
Her mum Anna Sullivan today spoke of her torment as dad Haines was jailed for life with a minimum of 23 years and four months.
Chillingly, the dad had walked past her after murdering Lily as Anna waited to pick her up.
The mum said: "The events of the night Lily died go over in my mind constantly and I wake up in the night picturing Lily in the water, wondering if she knew what was happening, if she was scared.
"I wish I had stopped Lily going out that night.
"I picture the male responsible for Lily's death who I saw in the garage and wish I'd confronted him. He looked me straight in the eyes, knowing what he had done.
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"Knowing I was that close to her, I wish I'd gotten out of my car and walked. I will always wonder if I could have saved her.
"These thoughts never leave me and I can't stop thinking about it. I have to live with the fact that I will now never know what really happened to Lily that night.
"I suspect the actual truth will haunt me for the rest of my life."
Haunting CCTV footage showed Lily walking through the quiet streets with the 31-year-old after they met in a nightclub.
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She can be seen engaging in conversation with her killer and handing him her bag in her final moments.
The pair then made their way to an alleyway where they became more intimate before the teen rebuffed Haines.
He then strangled Lily in a bid to "silence" her and "forcibly" removed her lace top before pushing her in the water.
Further CCTV then shows the moment Haines walked past Lily's unwitting mum as he fled the murder scene.
She can be seen glancing at the killer as he passes her car as she waited to pick her daughter up in a nearby garage.
Tragically, Lily had called Anne at 2.47am telling her: "I'll be there now mam. I'm on my way. I'm a couple of minutes away. I'm nearly there."
The call then disconnected mid-sentence as Haines pounced – with Anna frantically trying to call her daughter back 30 times.
TRAGIC END
Swansea Crown Court heard how after Haines murdered Lily, he rushed home to his girlfriend and told her: "I have strangled somebody.
"They are in the Mill Pond. I've been in the Mill Pond."
He then drove with his partner to his mother's house while he was "crying" and "hysterical".
After he was arrested, the monster asked cops: "What the f*** have I done?"
He admitted grabbing Lily's neck with both hands before he "threw her sideways" and caused her to fall into the water.
The court was told Haines claimed he strangled Lily because threatened to accuse him rape.
But Judge Paul Thomas QC concluded Haines had killed the teen after she rebuffed his sexual advances.
He said: "It is clear that Lewis Haines wanted to ensure that Lily died. His intention was to silence her.
"He didn't want anyone to know what had happened in the lane.
"I am sure, however, having been in that lane for some time with Lily and having had intimate contact with her up to a point, Lily decided that she was going home to meet her mother.
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"She made it clear from the phone call if nothing else to her mother that she did not want the intimacy between her and Lewis Haines to go as far as sexual intercourse.
"Fuelled as he was by drink, I am sure that Lewis Haines was frustrated by this because he had expectations and hopes that it would go further."
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