Jo Yeates murderer Vincent Tabak had films of women being strangled

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12 April 2012

Vincent Tabak murdered Joanna Yeates for sexual thrills after becoming obsessed with pornographic images of women being strangled, the Standard can reveal.

The Dutchman was convicted of murder this afternoon by a 10-2 majority. Sentencing him to life with a minimum of 20 years, Mr Justice Field said: "This was a dreadful, evil act."

Tabak was fixated with his next-door neighbour and was acting out his sex fantasies when he throttled her in her Bristol flat. The jury rejected his plea to manslaughter, along with his defence that he had never intended to kill her and had acted on the spur of the moment.

Evidence not disclosed to the jury revealed that:

A film on his laptop showed a woman saying "choke me".

Another featured a victim dressed in a pink top and jeans,just like 25-year-old Miss Yeates was wearing when she died.

The laptop held three images of a woman with a striking resemblance to Miss Yeates with her top pushed up - as her body was when it was discovered.

In another echo of the murder, a computer image showed two naked women bound and gagged in the boot of a man's car. Bristol crown court heard that his victim's body was in the boot of his car when he went shopping before dumping it in a country lane.

Tabak's DNA was found on Miss Yeates's breasts, chest and arm. The jury rejected his claim that he panicked when she screamed and rejected his advances.

In fact the 33-year-old engineer was fixated with extreme images of women being strangled and used his home computer to look at pictures of women resembling his neighbour.

Miss Yeates, a landscape architect, fought desperately for her life as she was strangled by Tabak, suffering 43 separate wounds in the attack on December 17 last year.

Her parents David and Teresa Yeates were too traumatised to attend but her boyfriend Greg Reardon was in court as the verdict was returned after the jury had deliberated for 14 hours.

Mr Justice Field said: "Vincent Tabak is a thoroughly deceitful and manipulative man. There was a sexual element to this killing." The judge told Tabak he had committed "a dreadful, evil act on a vulnerable young woman".

It is only now that details can be reported of Tabak's sexual fantasies. Police found images of sex scenes of men gripping women by the throat on his computer.

On the day he killed Miss Yeates, Tabak had logged onto a site immediately after his girlfriend Tanja Morson had left for work.

But the judge ruled that the jury should not be told of his obsession with violent porn. Prosecutor Nigel Lickley QC said the material, described as "high quality titles of sex and submission", had been found on Tabak's laptop at his home and on two hard drives at home and at his work.

"They concern porn depicting violence towards women with their tops raised and violent images of women being held by the neck, then being sexually abused," he said.

"These images have a real significance and explain why Tabak held Joanna by the neck and killed her. It is an area of the case that remains unexplained.

"But we submit that it is the case he developed a sexual pleasure from it.

"He liked these films because he watched more than one - sometimes more than once. He saw images of sexual violence - did he participate on that evening?"

But at the start of the trial Mr Justice Field ruled the evidence inadmissible, saying: "In my judgment the watching and the possession of porn showing violence and the threat of violence is reprehensible conduct. But the fact there could be a sexual motive does not explain why Tabak intended to kill or cause serious injury. In my judgment a fair trial would be put seriously at risk if it was to be admitted."

Despite admitting he had killed Miss Yeates, Tabak forced her anguished family to endure the trauma of a full trial by pleading not guilty to murder.

He accepted he was "calculating, dishonest and manipulative", but claimed Miss Yeates had invited him into her flat even though she was alone and they had never met.

He told the court that he had placed his hands on her neck and mouth for barely 15 seconds when she screamed as he tried to kiss her.

The injuries she suffered, far from indicating a 15-second attack, showed there had been a sustained struggle as she fought for her life. When pressed to provide a more detailed explanation he replied "I can't remember" more than 80 times.

Police believe he had been watching his victim through her kitchen window, knowing that her boyfriend was away.

An hour after the killing, Tabak bundled her body into the boot of his car and went shopping for beer and crisps before texting his girlfriend that he was "bored".

That night he drove to a lane in North Somerset to dump her body where it lay undiscovered beneath snow until Christmas morning.

As detectives hunted for the killer, he spent his time searching for images of Miss Yeates on police websites, looking at his computer porn and desperately covering his tracks - even trying to frame his landlord Chris Jefferies.

In court his lawyer, William Clegg QC, described him as "frankly disgusting".

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