Murdered teenager Louise Smith’s ‘predatory’ uncle has been jailed for at least 25 years after beating her to death and assaulting her in a ‘sexually motivated’ killing.
Shane Mays, from Havant, Hampshire, smirked as he sat in the dock to be sentenced at Winchester Crown Court after being found guilty of the murder of the 16-year-old on VE Day.
The defendant lured the 16-year-old to the secluded spot in Havant Thicket where he repeatedly punched her in the face, causing her fatal injuries.
He then defiled her with a stick before burning her body, which was found 13 days later following a major police search.
The ‘vulnerable’ student had moved in with the defendant and his wife Chazlynn Jayne (CJ) Mays – the victim’s aunt – at the end of April after she had ‘quarrelled’ with her mother, the court was told.
But arguments broke out between the trio and Louise complained to her boyfriend, Bradley Kercher, that Mays would ‘flirt’ with her and pin her down, and the jury was shown a Snapchat video of him tickling her feet.
Shane Mays (left, in a mug shot released yesterday) bludgeoned Louise Smith (right, in a photo released by her family) to death by punching her repeatedly in the face until a part of her skull caved in
Earlier in the trial Mr Newton-Price QC had described how Mays had preyed on the slightly built teen, (pictured) who had hoped to become a veterinary nurse
Yellow tape representing a fallen tree trunk and an orange flag marking the spot in woodland at Havant Thicket in Hampshire, where police found Louise’s body
Louise Smith’s mother, Rebecca, yesterday spoke of her ‘unbelievable pain’ at not being able to see her daughter again. She is seen outside court with her partner, Richard O’Shea
James Newton-Price QC, prosecuting, told the trial: ‘Louise was just 16, she was anxious, needy, fragile and vulnerable, vulnerable to the attentions of a predatory man who was apparently flirting with her and living in the same small flat.’
He suggested Mays had persuaded Louise to walk with him to the woodland by offering her cannabis with the aim of sexually assaulting her.
The judge, Mrs Justice May, said: ‘Shane Mays was in a position of trust in relation to Louise; theirs was like a father-daughter relationship.
‘That being, he committed the most gross abuse of trust. I am not persuaded his learning disability tempered this in any way as Shane Mays plainly recognised Louise was young, had mental health difficulties and was in his and CJ’s care.
‘The sudden death of any person is tragic but the death of a vulnerable child is particularly grievous.’
In a victim impact statement read to court, Louise’s mother Rebbecca Cooper said: ‘You killed my daughter Louise in such a traumatic way but then to do what you did afterwards is beyond words. You are a monster. What gave you the right to do that?
Louise’s father, Bradley Smith, (pictured on the right with his family – names not known), said: ‘We all find it impossible to accept that we will never hear her voice or see her cheeky smile again’
Mays attempted to burn her defiled body before heading home and casually buying a pizza in Iceland just hours later (pictured in a CCTV still)
Mays, an unemployed 30-year-old, who spent nine-hours a day playing his X-Box games console, (right with his wife, Chazlynn Jayne Mays) covered his tracks by joining in a huge search for the teenager
‘You damaged her so bad that I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye, hold her hand or even kiss her. I will never forgive you for this.
‘You came to my house the day you killed her, looked me in the eyes with no remorse when you knew what you had done was pure evil. You have made us relive what you did to Louise.’
She described her daughter, who wanted to be a veterinary nurse, as ‘happy and smiley’ who ‘had the world to look forward to’.
Louise’s father Bradley Smith said he was ‘tortured by nightmares’, and added: ‘Louise was a beautiful daughter and I have been robbed of what was to be my time with her.’
Mays, who admitted manslaughter, told the court he punched Louise ‘many’ times to the face and had heard her bones ‘crack’ after losing his temper.
He said: ‘I just carried on, I lost control of myself. She made a moaning noise, that’s when I stopped.’
Louise’s blood was found on Mays’s trainer and a billion-to-one DNA match to him was found on the stick.
The court heard a clinical review of the defendant found he had an ‘extremely low’ IQ of 63, putting him in the bottom one percentile of people.
Mays told the court he had not worked for five years and spent nine hours a day playing video games.
Andrew Langdon QC, representing Mays, said the defendant had been assessed as having learning difficulties and a personality disorder.
Mays, who admitted taking hard drugs, like ecstasy and cocaine, in the past had been given a caution for assaulting another boy in 2005 when he was 14-years-old