Jamie Cook was sentenced yesterday (credit: Met Police)
Jamie Cook, of Asthall Gardens was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court yesterday (Thursday, 23 March) after he pleaded guilty to murdering 67-year-old Hilary Round.
Hilary’s body was found on Wednesday, 12 October by officers who’d forced entry into her home in De Vere Gardens after receiving a concerned call.
The call to police came after Cook had rung his mother, who lived in the flat below Hilary, and told her that he had killed her neighbour “three or four days ago”.
Cook was arrested a short time later at a property in Horns Road where Hilary’s bank card was found.
A post mortem established the cause of death as compression to the neck.
A dressing gown cord found in his mother’s flat was identified as the suspected murder weapon.
Homicide detectives analysed CCTV and identified Cook using Hilary’s bank card in supermarkets and fast food outlets on Thursday, 6 October and Friday, 7 October.
Cook was charged with murder on Friday, 14 October and pleaded guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday, 16 March.
Detective Chief Inspector Jo Yorke, the officer in the case, said: “Jamie Cook launched a completely unprovoked attack on a woman in her own home.
“The callous nature of the murder was compounded by the fact he stole a bank card he then used to buy food. He also failed to raise the alarm until almost a week after Hilary Round had died.”
In a victim impact statement, Louise Moseley, Hilary’s sister, said she was “very kind, caring, friendly, helpful and generous.”
She said: “She saw the best in people. She had a Christian faith and very much enjoyed singing in the Seven Kings Gospel Choir. She also loved gardening and would help our mother and her neighbours with their gardens. She wanted to make the world a better place.”
