Becky Godden murder: Christopher Halliwell found guilty of killing missing sex worker

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Convicted killer Christopher Halliwell, 52, has been found guilty at Bristol Crown Court of murdering missing prostitute Becky Godden five years after initially escaping justice due to police blunders.

The former taxi driver, who is already serving a life sentence after he admitted stabbing and strangling Sian O'Callaghan in 2011, denied killing the 20-year-old in court claiming she had been buried by two drug dealers.

But police told the court Halliwell had confessed to picking up a sex worker from the streets of Swindon between 2003 and 2005, having sex with her then strangling while showing police where Ms O'Callaghan's body was buried.

The body of Ms O'Callaghan, who had gone missing while on a night out with friends in Swindon in 2011, was found semi-naked in undergrowth in Uffington, Oxfordshire after Halliwell took police to the spot.

While in Uffington, the jury heard that Halliwell had told Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher who was leading the investigation that they needed to "have a chat".

The court that Halliwell had told Det Sup Fulcher the "exact spot" where Ms Godden was buried and her remains were subsequently found "hidden in the middle of nowhere" in Eastleach, Gloucestershire.

Police believe Halliwell abducted Ms Godden from Destiny & Desire, a nightclub in Swindon town centre close to where he took Ms O'Callaghan, in January 2003.

"Both were taken in a taxi," prosecutor Nicholas Haggan QC told the hearing.

"Both bodies were deposited in rural locations on the eastern side of Swindon. Becky is believed to have been buried naked. When Sian was found she was only partially clothed."

The officer told the court he believed Halliwell may have killed others.

Halliwell described himself as a "sick f*****" when he confessed to the murders, the court heard.

The case has only resulted in a conviction five years after Ms Godden's body was discovered due to a series of police procedural errors.

A High Court judge ruled that the confession was inadmissible in court as Det Sup Fulcher had failed to caution Halliwell before he told him about Ms Godden's body and denied him a solicitor during a three hour interview after his arrest when the officer believed there was still a chance of finding her alive.

The judge's ruling meant the Crown Prosecution Service was forced to withdraw the murder charge against Halliwell until March this year when they uncovered further evidence linking him to the crime including soil found on a shovel in his home and the eyewitness accounts of other sex workers in the area.

The ruling was subsequently overturned in July this year after the High Court heard two days of legal arguments.

The jury were also allowed to hear about Halliwell's previous conviction for murdering Ms O'Callaghan as well as an admission made to a police doctor.

The father-of-three denied murdering Ms Godden in court and defended himself during the two-week trial. It took a jury of six men and six women less than three hours to find him guilty.

Halliwell laughed and smiled as the verdict was returned by the jury.

Members of Ms O'Callaghan's family and the Godden family cheered, wept and hugged each other when they heard the guilty verdict.

As Halliwell was led away from the court he paused to stare and smile at Ms Godden's family.

Her mother, Karen Edwards, campaigned for changes to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) following the initial High Court ruling.

She had made several attempts to find her daughter, who had turned to prostitution after becoming addicted to heroin, who she believed was living in the Bristol area until police knocked on her door in 2011.

Trial judge Sir John Griffith Williams told the court he was considering either a whole life order or a "significant" minimum prison term for Halliwell.

The judge said: "I have read the mitigation of Mr (Richard) Latham QC who acted for Mr Halliwell and the sentencing remarks of Mrs Justice Cox.

"They merely reinforce me in the view that he is a liar whose word should be taken in some instances with a pinch of salt."

Halliwell is due to be sentenced on Friday.

Additional reporting by PA