A man has been sentenced to life in prison for the “brutal” murder of a 15-year-old girl in 1975 | a crime

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A man who killed a teenager nearly 50 years ago has been told he will likely spend the rest of his life in prison, the judge has told the oldest double jeopardy case in England and Wales.

Dennis McGrory was 28 when he sexually assaulted, stabbed and strangled Jackie Montgomery, 15, during a “horrific, violent and persistent ordeal” at her home in Islington, north London, in 1975.

He was acquitted of the murder the following year at the direction of a judge, but was finally found guilty on Friday after swabs of Montgomery’s body yielded a one-in-a-billion DNA match.

The victim’s family described the decades McGrory, 75, spent outside prison as “soul-destroying”, with her sister Cathy saying they “knew he did this from day one”.

After a 2003 change to the law on double jeopardy, McGrory’s case was transferred to the Court of Appeal and sent for a new trial.

Dennis McGrory in custody. Photo: Metropolitan Police/Palestinian Authority

On Friday at Huntingdon Crown Court, Judge Brian McGrory was jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years and 126 days. He called the crimes “abhorrent” and “heinous”, and said the idea that a man could inflict this level of violence on a 15-year-old girl was a “beggar of faith”.

The retrial, which had been scheduled for March last year at the Old Bailey, was interrupted when the accused, Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, fell ill.

He appeared for a retrial at Huntingdon Crown Court via video link and was found guilty of rape and murder last month. The jury deliberated for just over an hour to convict McGrory on both counts.

Sentencing McGrory, who appeared via video link from HMB Peterborough on Friday, the judge told the killer: “I have no doubt whatsoever that you intended to kill her in your brutal attack on her.

“You put Jackie through a terrible, violent, and constant ordeal in her own home—a place where she was entitled to feel safe. In the decades that followed, you must have thought you got away with your heinous crimes.

How could any man inflict such sexual violence on a 15-year-old who had done him no harm the beggars believe.

“She didn’t show an iota of remorse or sympathy toward Jackie or Jackie’s family. She cut out and deprived her of that life, all the things she had hoped for in that life.”

The judge said that given McGrory’s age, he would “most likely” die in prison.

Jackie Montgomery. Image: Royal Prosecution Service/PA

McGrory appeared to show no emotion at the sentencing, and wore a surgical face mask throughout the hearing.

At the hearing on Friday, victim Kathy Montgomery’s impact statement was read to the court, which read: “A violent man living within our family (raped and murdered) my sister. He was able to live his life. He spent nearly 50 years as a man.” Free to do whatever he wants.

“I find it unbearable when my sister didn’t even reach her sixteenth birthday. His actions shocked many people and there were no consequences for him.

“The investigation of the past few years has meant revisiting memories of the murder that caused pain and stress for me and my family, and I am relieved that we finally got justice for Jackie.”

Speaking outside the court after McGrory’s imprisonment, Montgomery told reporters: “I’m just relieved.

“I don’t know what to do with myself, it’s been taking so long.

“She suffered, that girl… She didn’t deserve what she got – but he deserves what he got now.”

When asked how she feels about McGrory getting out of prison for decades, Montgomery said, “Soul shattering. Soul shattering, knowing I couldn’t do anything to get close to him.”

“We all knew he did from day one.”

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