Extreme online porn fueled murder of Georgia Williams, says Britain's top judge
Britain's top judge has said he is in no doubt that extreme online pornography helped fuel the murder of Shropshire teenager Georgia Williams by Jamie Reynolds.
Giving evidence to MPs, The Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas referred to Georgia's murder.
Reynolds, who was said to be obsessed with violent online images, strangled 17-year-old Georgia to death in a meticulously planned killing at his Telford home.
Police searching his home discovered 16,800 pornographic images, 72 extreme videos and 40 obscene stories written by him.
Stafford Crown Court heard he had taken innocent photographs of girls from social networking sites and added ropes around their neck and sexual obscenities. On one such photograph he had written "no please don't hang me, too late, you hang until dead".
Lord Thomas, rejected Reynolds' appeal against his whole life term last year. He told the Commons justice committee that the case "left me in no doubt at all that the peddling of pornography on the internet had a dramatic effect on the individual".
He added: 'What is available to download and to see is simply horrific and it played a real part in the way in which this particular murder was carried out."
Lord Thomas told the MPs it was difficult to believe that Reynolds could have come up with his plan without first reading about similar scenarios online.
Other recent cases have also included access to extreme pornography online.
Mark Bridger was jailed for a whole-life term in 2012 after being found guilty of killing Machynlleth five-year-old April Jones a year earlier. He had searched for images of child abuse and rape.
Stuart Hazell was jailed for murdering 12-year-old Tia Sharp in 2013. His trial heard he had searched for child pornography using terms including "violent forced rape" and "incest".
