Mildred Whitmore: Killing a 'culmination of violent incidents' by attacker

Mildred Whitmore's family said she was independent and 'their queen'

A man who killed an 84-year-old woman had previously attacked an elderly man with a pickaxe handle, a judge said.

Mildred Whitmore was found strangled at her College Street home in Nuneaton, Warwickshire in June 2021.

Chase Kelly, 32, was jailed for life at Warwick Crown Court on Tuesday.

In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Wall said Kelly had a "background of psychiatric illness" and the murder was a "culmination of a series of violent incidents".

Kelly, of no fixed abode, had denied murder but admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility. He was given a minimum sentence of nine years and nine months.

Sentencing him Mr Justice Wall said on the night of the attack Mrs Whitmore was in her bed at home where she should have been safest.

Kelly forced his way in, punched her and strangled her.

"She could not save herself from your attack given your respective ages (her in her 80s and you in your early 30s) and builds (she a slightly built woman of 5ft in height, you a powerfully built weightlifter).

"You did not know her and had no apparent motive for this vicious attack on a defenceless elderly lady."

An elderly man was attacked in May 2020 in a shop in Hinckley, Leicestershire, the judge said, with the victim left with "a fractured skull and a bleed on the brain".

Following the attack, where the shopkeeper was also threatened, Wall was charged "perhaps surprisingly" the judge said, "only with affray and possession of an offensive weapon."

Chase Kelly was a powerfully built weightlifter, the judge said

Kelly was given a suspended sentence of 12 months, held for 24 months.

Six days after being sentenced, Mr Wall added, on 25 February 2021, Kelly had been involved in "further street violence".

This led to him being charged with two offences of assault and one of using threatening words and behaviour. For that he was given a further suspended sentence of four months suspended for 18 months.

Psychiatric illness had been a "enduring difficulty" in Kelly's life, the judge said.

The night before the attack on Mrs Whitmore he had attended hospital where he "behaved bizarrely".

The morning after Mrs Whitmore was killed he was found found confused and half-dressed in a park.

Mildred Whitmore was attacked at her home "where she should have been safest"

At the time of the killing, he said, Kelly was "subject to an active psychotic episode" likely caused by taken a prescribed amphetamine medication, which he had taken in "excessive amount" despite being warned by psychiatrists about the "possible dangers of taking it to excess".

At his sentencing, Kelly was also given a 17-month sentence for assault occasioning actual bodily harm to run concurrently after attacking a supervisor at work and repeatedly hitting and kicking him.

This offence, Mr Justice Wall said, had occurred on 18 November 2020 while Kelly was on court bail awaiting sentence for the attack in Hinkley.

In sentencing, the judge said: "I must pass a sentence of life imprisonment so that the public can be adequately protected from you in the future."

In a statement released after sentencing, Mrs Whitmore's family said knowing their mother was "brutally attacked in her own home" had left them "devastated".