DJ's killer starts 16-year sentence

A student who strangled a Wolverhampton DJ and hacked his body into a dozen pieces because he sold him the wrong computer was today starting a 16-year prison sentence.

Dwayne Walker was jailed after admitting killing David Daly because the computer system did not have high enough specification

The 28-year-old of Eastfield Grove, Wednesfield, garotted Mr Daly, aged 31, with a tea towel before dumping body parts in the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. The head was put down a drain at Moorcroft Drive Industrial Park, in Wednesbury.

The body was discovered three months after Mr Daly, an unemployed DJ, of Quatford Gardens, Park Village, Wolverhampton, went missing on December 8, 2007. Walker was brought to justice after police discovered he had used Mr Daly's mobile phone Sim card.

Sentencing him at Wolverhampton Crown Court, Judge John Warner said: "The deliberate and gruesome way in which you sought to dispose of the body of Mr Daly is undoubtedly an aggravating feature of this murder. It has added to the family's inevitable stress and heartache over and above that of the murder itself."

Roger Smith, for Walker, said the murder was not pre-meditated.

He said the sports science student would have pleaded guilty at an earlier opportunity, but he was seeking to protect Jenny Miah, his partner.

Miah admitted perverting the course of justice and assisting in the concealment of evidence at after she helped redecorate the house she shared with Walker in a bid to get rid of all DNA evidence. The 37-year-old will be sentenced next month.

After the hearing, Mr Daly's family spoke of their horror at finding out he had been murdered. His sister Sam Darrell, a 29-year-old NVQ assessor from Tipton, said: "It was just numbing, just a shock. Nobody deserves what happened to him - it's horrifying.

"When he went missing we weren't too worried because he'd disappeared before and turned up. He had friends in north Wales and he'd ' go there to get away for a while. But three months was a long time even for David.

"I saw reports that a body had been found in the canal and I just remember thinking, 'that's him'. I knew it, I just had a feeling."

Mr Daly, a former pupil at Hall Green High School, Bilston, was "a lovable rogue", she said.

His father Robert, 53, of Bilston, said: "David would never have hurt anyone and he certainly didn't deserve this. It's been a nightmare."