Lisa Skidmore murder: My daughter's killer left me for dead says survivor Margaret
The heartbroken mother of a devoted nurse who was raped and murdered in her own home has spoken for the first time about her confrontation with her daughter's killer.
Margaret Skidmore, 80, who was herself attacked and left for dead by Leroy Campbell said: "I didn't know that morning what pain the day would bring - that pain never goes away. I lost a daughter, my friend and carer.
"Our family has suffered a tremendous loss because of an evil scumbag like him. He still can still breathe, and enjoy three meals a day and a bed at the taxpayers' expense. My daughter can't.
"Someone has to pay for Lisa's death because it could have been avoided."
The brave great-grandmother told how she caught 56-year-old Campbell off guard when she called in last November to check on Lisa, 37, who had been off work sick from her job at Bilston Health Centre.
"I could smell gas and called Lisa's name. Then I saw a figure move by the kitchen and thought it was Lisa and called her name again. Then Campbell was there, saying 'Don't shout Lisa', saying she was upstairs. He punched me in the face and head three or four times.
"He said 'I'm not going to hurt you. I'm a burglar. You surprised me'. He asked if I had any money and I said 'no'."
Despite being frail and needing sticks to walk, Mrs Skidmore twice confronted Campbell, asking what he was doing there and telling him to go.
Ignoring her, Campbell told her to sit down, pushing her roughly into an armchair when she initially sat on a dining chair and barked at her to stop looking when she turned to see what he was doing.
Then she felt the vacuum cleaner cord around her neck and managed to put three fingers under the lead before Campbell started tightening his grip. As Mrs Skidmore began choking, she felt two more tight pulls on the cord before she passed out.
Coming round 20 minutes later on the floor, she alerted police on her mobile phone. Before the emergency services arrived, two neighbours came to the door after spotting smoke - Campbell had set fire to the house to cover his tracks before fleeing - but despite Mrs Skidmore's desperate pleas for them to rescue Lisa, they were forced back by the fumes.
Fire crews arrived at the property in Mill Croft, Bilston, soon afterwards and it was while they were tending to her in a service vehicle outside that her daughter Joyce broke the news that firefighters had not been able to resuscitate Lisa. It was later that day that the full horror of her beloved youngest child's brutal death was broken to her.
Two weeks ago at Birmingham Crown Court, Campbell was handed a whole life sentence by Judge Mark Wall for his 'grotesque' deeds, which included attempting to murder Mrs Skidmore and arson.
Although the rest of the family were aware, it was not until an hour before the court case that Lisa's mother learned the full extent of his past deeds, being told that the paranoid schizophrenic had attacked women, including another nurse, in their homes before.
The details had been kept from her as she would have been a chief witness in the trial had Campbell pleaded not guilty.
Margaret Skidmore said that Campbell had continued to put the family through hell since Lisa's murder, calling for a second post mortem and not revealing his guilty plea until the 11th hour.
It meant that her daughter's funeral, attended by up to 300 people, could not take place until last month.
She said: "We will never get over this.The light has gone from our lives.
"I hope he never shuts his eyes again, the evil scumbag. Let her family take care of him and the world would be a better place for it - may he rot in hell."
