A man has been found guilty of the 2019 rape and murder of Keeley Bunker, who had “trusted” the killer to walk her home safe, in Tamworth, Staffordshire.
Wesley Streete, 20, was arrested and charged with murder after the 20-year-old’s body was discovered in woodland in September last year.
She was last seen at about 4am on September 19 in Leyfields, Tamworth.
Paramedics from West Midlands Ambulance Service were called to Roman Way shortly after 9pm later that day, following reports of a person in a nearby stream.
Bunker’s body was found when they arrived but the ambulance service said nothing could be done to save her.
Streete, who was a childhood friend of Bunker, had been among a group of friends on a night out in Birmingham the previous evening.
Arriving back in Tamworth, the two parted ways with another friend and walked together across town. She was not seen alive again.
Streete had denied the charges of rape and murder but admitted he “accidentally killed” Bunker before leaving her body in a brook in a nearby park and hiding her with branches.
He repeatedly lied about what had happened while on trial, changing his account at least four times.
A senior investigating officer in the case said there was “audacity in his arrogance” and that Streete had been “playing the martyr” by criticising the police for blaming him.
“There’s Wesley Streete and Wesley Streete alone who is responsible for Keeley’s untimely death,” detective inspector Cheryl Hannan told the PA news agency.
“Her friend, as Keeley did, trusted him to walk her home that night and there’s only Wesley to blame that she didn’t make it home.
“The lies that he told from the outset meant it was clear that he had something to do with her disappearance.
“When her body was located he was arrested and soon after that CCTV evidence would completely disprove his first account along with phone evidence.”
On Wednesday Streete was found guilty of seven charges at Stafford Crown Court.
The charges include rape and two counts of sexual assault in 2015, a sexual assault in 2017 and a rape in 2019.