Dennis McGrory and the victim
England and Wales (UK): In the oldest double jeopardy case of England and wales, a 75-year-old man was convicted on Monday of murdering a 15-year-old girl in 1975. He was convicted after a rare DNA match and a page torn from the victim’s diary which he allegedly kept for 50 years.
Dennis McGrory was 28 years old when he sexually assaulted, stabbed, and strangled Jacqui Montgomery, 15, in her Islington, north London, home in 1975.
He had been ‘wild with rage’ trying to find his ex-partner Josie Montgomery, who was Jacqui’ aunt.
Prosecutor Sarah Przybylska told jurors that he ‘took out his rage on the next best thing, Jacqui Montgomery, raping and murdering her’ after failing to find her aunt.
During the attack, he tore a page from the teenager’s diary that contained her aunt’s address.Robert Montgomery, Jacqui’s father, discovered her body on the floor of their living room in Offord Road in the early hours of June 2, 1975.
Reports say that she had suffered fatal stab wounds as well as blunt force trauma on her face and was strangled with the flex of an iron.
For this crime, McGrory was tried in the following year on a circumstantial case and was reportedly acquitted of murder charges.
However, the justice finally was served after the ancient double jeopardy legal principle was scrapped.Following scrapping of the law, the case got reopened in March, however the trial was called off due to McGrory’s illness in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.
Later he appeared before court via video link for his retrial at Huntingdon Crown Court, where he was found guilty of rape and murder.
On Monday, the jury there deliberated for just over an hour before finding him guilty on both counts.McGrory was then remanded in custody and will be sentenced on January 13. Possibility is that he will end up dying in prison.
“This crime took place a full decade before the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) opened its doors, so it’s certainly the oldest case that I’ve encountered,” said Max Hill KC, Director of Public Prosecutions.
“It is one of the very small handful of double jeopardy cases that I’ve personally authorised to be taken to the Court of Appeal,” he added.
Mr. Hill added that McGrory’s DNA was found on victim’s body, however till the very last day he denied that he was even at the scene or at the house in which she was murdered.
“So that formed a really important new piece of evidence alongside the circumstantial evidence, which included the page torn from Jacqueline’s diary,” said Mr Hill.
After putting the two elements together, it became impossible for him to explain his possession of the diary page and the DNA sample that he left on this girl’s body in any way other than him being present and being the killer himself.
Jacqui’s sister Kathy, meanwhile said: ‘A violent man who had been living within our family (raped and) murdered my sister. He has been able to live his life. He has spent nearly 50 years as a free man doing as he pleased.
“I find that unbearable when my sister didn’t even reach her 16th birthday. His actions caused trauma to so many people and there were no consequences for him,” she told media.
“The investigation of the last few years has meant revisiting memories of the murder which has caused pain and stress for me and my family and I am relieved that we finally have justice for Jacqui,” she said.
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