A woman who had sex with a vulnerable man and encouraged two of her friends to murder him after she tried to ghost him has been jailed for life.
Becki West Davidson, 30, ignored messages and protestations of love from autistic Joe Pooley, 22, after they slept together, Ipswich Crown Court was told.
She became enraged and arranged a revenge attack on him after he reacted to her lack of replies by saying that he was surprised she did not live with her children.
Her friends Sean Palmer, 31, and Sebastian Smith, 35, attacked Mr Pooley before throwing him into the River Gipping in Ipswich, Suffolk where he drowned.
Joe Pooley, from Ipswich, who was found in the River Gipping
- Credit: Suffolk Constabulary
The mother of murdered Ipswich man Joe Pooley, whose body was found in the River Gipping, has described her son s killers as “bullies”.
In a moving victim statement read to Ipswich Crown Court today Joe’s mother Samantha Nicholls described 22-year-old Joe, who was autistic and had learning difficulties, as vulnerable and desperate for friends.
Addressing his killers directly across the courtroom she accused them of being “bullies” and said they had robbed her of a future with her son and replaced it with a “funeral and an urn containing his ashes .
Sebastian Smith, Sean Palmer and Becki West-Davidson have been jailed for life for the murder of vulnerable Ipswich man Joe Pooley whose body was found in the River Gipping.
A fourth defendant, Lisa-Marie Smith, 26, of Hawick, Roxburghshire, was unanimously cleared of murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter.
Jailing Sebastian Smith, Palmer and West-Davidson for life Judge Levett directed that Smith should serve a minimum term of 21 years before he can be considered eligible for parole, Palmer for 18 years and West-Davidson for 17 years.
Sebastian Smith refused to leave prison to come to court and was sentenced in his absence.
In a letter read to the court he described the trial process as being biased and said he didn’t see the point of coming to court.
A policeman guarding the scene in August 2018.