Lily Sullivan: Man who strangled teenager to death after she rejected his sexual advances is jailed

Teenager was found dead in a nearby pond after being strangled by Lewis Haines

A father-of-one who strangled a teenage girl to death after she rejected his sexual advances has been jailed for life.

Lewis Haines was sentenced to a minimum of 23 years in prison on Friday, for the murder of Lily Sullivan following a night out in Wales last December.

Speaking after the sentencing, Anna Sullivan, Lily’s mother, described Haines as “pure evil”. While Haines strangled the 18-year-old college student, Miss Sullivan was waiting in her car at a garage to collect her daughter.

Lily Sullivan was murdered by a man she met on a night out (PA)

“I wish I had stopped Lily going out that night,” Anna said. Haines walked past Anna’s car after he had carried out the murder. “He looked me straight in the eyes knowing what he had done,” she added.

Sentencing Haines, Judge Paul Thomas QC said: “You strangled her face to face, she must have been terrified.

“An 18-year-old girl all alone in the dark with a powerful man,” he continued. “She was entirely at your mercy and you, Lewis Haines, showed her none.

“You were entirely thinking about your own self-preservation.” He said Miss Sullivan’s death had caused “devastation to many”.

Speaking outside Swansea Crown Court, the senior investigating officer Richard Yelland, a detective chief inspector, described Lewis Haines as “violent and predatory”.

Lewis Haines has been jailed for a minimum of 23 years (Dyfed Powys Police)

“On the evening of 17 December last year 18-year-old Lily Sullivan enjoyed an evening out with friends,” he said.

“In the early hours of the following morning the violent and predatory actions of Lewis Haines took the life of Lily in an attempt to satisfy his own needs.

“Lewis Haines passed numerous opportunities to seek help when fleeing the scene of his crime.

“These cruel actions have changed the lives of all those who knew Lily and the close knit community of Pembroke.”

The court heard how Haines, 31, killed Sullivan after meeting her at a nightclub in Pembroke.

CCTV shows Lily walking with her killer (Screengrab/Video Crown Prosecution)

The pair kissed after meeting in the “Out” venue on 16 December and later went to a nearby alleyway together where they became more intimate.

Sullivan was later found face down and topless in the Mill Pond, a two-mile-long freshwater reservoir near the town, the court heard.

Haines, a father-of-one, has confessed to murdering Sullivan but denied sexual misconduct.

But after a trial of facts, Judge Thomas concluded Haines had killed the teenager after she rebuffed his sexual advances.

“It is clear that Lewis Haines wanted to ensure that Lily died. His intention was to silence her,” the judge said.

“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.

The pair met inside a nightclub in Pembroke, west Wales, in December last year (PA Media)

“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.”

Haines claimed Sullivan threatened to accuse him of rape and he did not want his partner and family to learn what had happened.

William Hughes QC, prosecuting, had argued that Haines “showed sexual interest in Lily” from the time he met her in the venue.

The court heard how Haines admitted they kissed in the alleyway where her jacket, mobile phone and tobacco were later found.

The teen’s call to her mother at 2.47 am had been cut off mid-sentence and Mr Hughes said it was the crown’s belief that “Lily was attacked at that point”.

He also said that it was their case that Sullivan’s cream-coloured lace crop top had been removed “forcibly” before she was pushed in the water.

John Hipkin QC, defending, said there was no forensic evidence of sexual contact between the pair or evidence the top had been torn from her body as it remained intact.

Haines walked past Sullivan’s mother as she waited in a car in a nearby garage for her daughter (PA Media)

Haines claims he tried to pull Sullivan out of the water, but the judge rejected this saying he had made no attempts to save her.

The defendant, who was wearing a white shirt and had a shaved head, held a hand to his head and looked up at the ceiling as the judge spoke.

The court heard how Anna Sullivan, who is the mother of Lily, was talking to her daughter on the phone as the attack started but the phone line cut out, with her mother attempting to call her daughter 30 times but to no avail.

Her last conversation took place when her daughter told her she would be meeting her at the garage.

“I’m on my way,” Lily had said. “I’m a couple of minutes away. I’m nearly there.”

Haines, who was reportedly crying and hysterical when he arrived home at 3.40am, told his girlfriend Maisie John that he had killed somebody.

Ms John said Haines’s jeans were damp and he had blood on his arms.

She said Haines was “hysterical” and repeatedly asked to be taken to his mother’s house.

On the journey, he admitted: “I think she’s dead.”

Prior to the sentencing the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) released CCTV showing the pair walking on the near-empty streets after leaving the venue. Haines can be seen taking the 18-year-old’s purse in one clip.

You can find more information and advice for people affected by rape and sexual abuse at Rape Crisis or you can call the National Domestic Violence Helpline on 0808 2000 247.