Trevor Dunkley jailed for murder of woman missing for 28 years

The court heard Dunkley had “become emotional” when police told him Lashley’s family, including her children, “wanted answers” about her disappearance.

He then admitted: “I killed her, I’m sorry.”

Speaking to the BBC, Det Insp Michelle Cordell, of West Midlands Police, said it had come as a surprise when Dunkley decided to confess to his crimes.

“I don’t think we will ever understand the reasons why he’s chosen now to confess. Only Trevor Dunkley knows why now,” she said.

The court heard that one night between 22 and 28 September 1998, Dunkley, who worked as a furnaceman, had come home from a night shift.

Prosecutor Robert Price said that Dunkley told police in his confession he had “snapped” during an argument with Lashley and “hit her on the head and kept hitting until she went quiet”.

He moved her body into the cellar “for about a year”.

“I could hear the rats under the kitchen floor,” Dunkley had told police.

Price said that when Dunkley next went into the cellar, “there were only bones left” and he put them in bags “for bin men to take away” over four collections.

In mitigation, Balbir Singh said Dunkley was a “decent and hardworking man” with no previous convictions and a good record at work. He added the murder had not been planned.

The judge acknowledged the defendant’s confession to police was “to his credit” but told Dunkley as he sentenced him: “You did a dreadful thing and the passage of time is only down to your untruths.”