Jail sentence for killer rapist who murdered Wolverhampton man was too lenient - judges
A rapist who murdered a father of two by repeatedly stamping on his head and chest during a “tornado of criminal violence” has had his sentence increased at the Court of Appeal.
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Carl Ellitts was originally jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years for the murder of Roy Deeley-Price, as well as three separate robberies, assault with intention to rob and four counts of raping two women, all of which happened during a four-day “rampage”.
Ellitts, of no fixed address, saw Mr Deeley-Price, 48, withdrawing £10 from a cashpoint in Tettenhall Road, Wolverhampton, just before 10pm on May 28 last year and followed him before launching the deadly attack.
Wolverhampton Crown Court previously heard Ellitts returned to Mr Deeley-Price’s body four times in the space of 11 minutes to continue his assault, kicking and stamping on his head at least 12 times, at one point using both his feet.
The 26-year-old was also handed a 10-year sentence for each count of rape to run concurrently, and eight years to run concurrently for the robberies, as well as three years for assault with intention to rob – all part of what was described by the sentencing judge as a “tornado of criminal violence, both physical and sexual”.
Ellitts’s sentence was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and yesterday judges increased the minimum term of his life sentence to 35 years.
Bill Emlyn Jones KC, for the AGO, told the hearing in London that the total sentence had been “unduly lenient” and had not been increased enough to factor in the rapes and robberies.
The barrister said the rapes featured “humiliating and degrading conduct” with “particularly vulnerable victims being preyed upon”.
Ellitts appeared via video link from Full Sutton prison in Yorkshire, with members of Mr Deeley-Price’s family also attending the hearing remotely. At the end of the hearing, Lord Justice Stuart-Smith, sitting with Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb and Mr Justice Choudhury, agreed the original sentence had been unduly lenient.
Lord Justice Stuart-Smith said: “The murder of Roy Deeley-Price has had a dreadful impact on his mother, his two children and his sister, to whom life since his death has been a ‘waking nightmare’.”
The senior judge said Ellitts had an “extremely concerning history of violence, particularly towards women” and that the murder featured “senseless and gratuitous violence”.
“The aggregate sentence must reflect the totality of all the relevant offending,” Lord Justice Stuart-Smith said.
He ruled that if Ellitts had to be sentenced for just the murder, he would be given at least a minimum term of 29 years.
However, he added the robberies “represent serious criminality that must be reflected in the total sentence” and that it was “paramount” to reflect the impact of the rapes.
Lord Justice Stuart-Smith concluded: “That criminality is not, in our view, reflected in the sentence passed by the judge.”
The sentence increase comes after the trial judge previously amended Ellitts’s minimum term in March to 28-and-a-half years due to an error in calculating credit for a guilty plea.
