Killer starts life sentence
This is the face of the hairdresser who knifed Black Country casino boss Barry De Lacy to death after a chance encounter in a gay bar.
Dean Frank Wood, aged 28, stabbed 62-year-old Mr De Lacy 28 times in the frenzied attack which the judge described as a "grotesque" killing.
Wood showed no emotion as he was sentenced to life in prison at Leeds Crown Court yesterday and told that he must spend at least 13 years in jail for the killing which shocked the Black Country.
Wood, of Langley Moor, County Durham, will remain in prison until at least 2019 and was told by the judge that he would not automatically be released after serving his sentence.
District Judge James Stewart told him he would be freed only when he had satisfied doctors that he was no longer a danger to the public.
It emerged during yesterday's hearing that Wood had originally told police that Mr De Lacy was attacked by an unknown intruder while he was having a shower.
However, he changed his story and pleaded guilty to the murder after it became apparent that he had concocted the story to try to cover his tracks.
Wood also said that he had no recollection of the incident - a claim which the judge upheld.
Judge Stewart said: "Perhaps you attacked him out of revulsion for the depths you had sunk to, but we will never know because I accept you may have had amnesia. So grotesque was the attack, your mind may be closed to the painful recollection of what you did.
"I have no alternative but to sentence you to life imprisonment for taking away the life of a man who had two children, a responsible job and who was respected by everyone who knew him."
The man in charge of the inquiry, Det Insp Bill Shackleton of West Yorkshire Police, said investigations carried out by the police and forensic teams had shown Wood's claims that Mr De Lacy was murdered by an unknown intruder to be a complete fabrication.
He added that the thoughts of the investigation team were with Mr De Lacy's family, friends and colleagues.
Read also: Encounter led to brutal murder, Barry killer jailed for life
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