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The mother of the murdered teenager Louise Smith has called her daughter’s killer “pure evil”, as the 30-year-old was imprisoned for life for a minimum of 25 years.
Rebbecca Cooper said Shane Mays had “ taken a piece of my heart ” by beating the 16-year-old to death in Havant, Hampshire on VE Day.
Mays smirked as he sat in the dock to be sentenced in Winchester Crown Court today after being convicted of murder yesterday.
The defendant lured the girl to a secluded location in Havant Thicket, where he repeatedly struck her in the face, causing fatal injuries.
He then desecrated her with a stick before burning her body, which was found 13 days later after a major police search.
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Shane Mays (left, in a mugshot released yesterday) beat up Louise Smith (right, in a photo posted by her family) by repeatedly punching her in the face until part of her skull collapsed.
Earlier in the trial, Newton-Price QC had described how Mays had taken advantage of the light-built teenager (pictured) hoping to become a veterinary nurse.
Louise Smith’s mother, Rebbecca, spoke yesterday of her “incredible pain” at not being able to see her daughter again. She is seen outside court with her partner, Richard O’Shea.
Yellow ribbon depicting a fallen tree trunk and an orange flag marking the spot in the woods at Havant Thicket in Hampshire where the police found Louise’s body.
In a victim impact statement read at Winchester Crown Court, Ms Cooper said: ‘I am Louise’s mother.
‘This would be any parent’s worst nightmare and now it’s my nightmare. This is one of the hardest and heartbreaking things I will ever have to do.
‘You have taken away a part of my heart that will never be replaced. You killed my daughter Louise in such a traumatic way, but then doing what you did next is beyond words. You are a monster. What gave you the right to do that?
‘You have left that scar on my mind for the rest of my life. Now every time I think about her, I see the images that are shown in court.
You damaged her so much that I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye, hold her hand, or even kiss her. I will never forgive you for this.
‘My daughter was 16 years old, a girl who was just beginning her life. Louise was a very strong willed girl, happy and smiling. She would have done anything for anyone.
“ He had the whole world to look forward to, college, new friends and being able to become the person he wanted. One of her dreams was to be a veterinarian. She would have wanted to be a mom.
‘She would have been a great mother and yes, better than me sometimes. She wasn’t perfect but she was still his mother.
You have taken that dream away from her and us. At 16, his life should have begun, not ended. ‘
Louise’s father, Bradley Smith, (pictured right with his family, names unknown) said: “ It is impossible for all of us to accept that we will never hear her voice again or see her cheeky smile. ” .
Mays attempted to burn his contaminated body before heading home and casually buying a pizza in Iceland a few hours later (in a CCTV photo).
Mays, an unemployed 30-year-old who spent nine hours a day playing his X-Box game console, (along with his wife, Chazlynn Jayne Mays) covered his tracks by joining in a large search for the teenager.
She continued: ‘You have turned my life upside down. I can’t sleep, eat and my life is a mess. You did this to me, to no one else.
‘You came to my house the day you killed her, you looked me in the eyes without remorse when you knew that what you had done was pure evil.
You made us relive what you did to Louise. Louise will live through us. The memories locked in our hearts. ‘
The ‘vulnerable’ student had moved in with the defendant and his wife Chazlynn Jayne (CJ) Mays, the victim’s aunt, in late April after she had ‘quarreled’ with her mother, the court was informed.
But arguments broke out between the trio and Louise complained to her boyfriend, Bradley Kercher, that Mays would ‘flirt’ with her and pin her down, and the jury was shown a Snapchat video of him tickling her feet.
James Newton-Price QC, prosecutor, said at trial: “ Louise was only 16 years old, she was anxious, needy, fragile and vulnerable, vulnerable to the attentions of a predatory man who was apparently flirting with her and living in the same small apartment . ‘
He suggested that Mays had persuaded Louise to walk with him into the forest by offering her cannabis with the aim of sexually assaulting her.
The judge, Judge May, said: “Shane Mays was in a position of trust in relation to Louise; theirs was like a father-daughter relationship.
This being the case, he committed the most serious breach of trust. I’m not convinced that her learning disability has mitigated this in any way, as Shane Mays clearly recognized that Louise was young, had mental health issues, and was under his and CJ’s care.
Mays, who admitted to using hard drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine, received a warning in the past for assaulting another boy in 2005 when he was 14 years old.
“The sudden death of anyone is tragic, but the death of a vulnerable child is particularly serious.”
Bradley Smith, who is separated from Louise’s mother, said: ‘Since this tragic event my whole life has turned upside down, I no longer enjoy the activities that I used to do.
“My interactions with other people are now rarer than ever and when they do occur they are very short-lived.
‘This has caused me to not be able to function at work. My family is in utter confusion and we will be for the rest of our lives.
‘My mental and physical health has also been affected by not being able to sleep, as I am tortured by nightmares and I miss my little girl enormously, constantly.
Honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever recover from this. The best I can hope for is to cope better and I’m sure my family feels the same.
“Louise was a beautiful daughter and they have stolen what was going to be my time with her.”
Louise’s stepfather Richard O’Shea said: ‘I am Louise’s stepfather and her mother’s fiancé. What you have done has destroyed my life.
He may just be Louise’s stepfather, but for nine years he has grown up with me and his mother Becky.
“ She had grown into such a beautiful and intelligent young lady and it was a pleasure to call her my stepdaughter.
‘We were going to celebrate her 17th in August, but she took it away from her and us too.
Becky and I are engaged and Louise was very excited to be a bridesmaid. She had even chosen her dress for the occasion. You took that away from him.
‘I hate seeing my fiancee cry every night because she will never see her daughter walk through the front door again.
We won’t get to hear her laugh or smile. You even tried to stop Louise from seeing us.
You have made me physically sick with what you have done. I can’t eat anymore. I find it very difficult to sleep at night due to nightmares that make me sleep late in the morning.
I can’t talk to anyone about how I feel. I hardly ever go out, but when I do get out I panic and leave Becky alone.
‘Our life is now on hold and it has left a great void. Because of this, our family is struggling and it feels like we are being ripped apart at the seams. You have destroyed our lives and made them hell.
Mays, who admitted to manslaughter, told the court that he hit Louise “many” times in the face and that he had heard her bones “crack” after losing patience.
He said, ‘I kept going, I lost control of myself. She made a groan, that’s when I stopped.
Louise’s blood was found on Mays’ trainer and a billion-to-one DNA match was found on the stick.
The court heard a clinical review of the defendant that found he had an “extremely low” IQ of 63, putting him in the bottom percentile of people.
Mays told the court that he had not worked for five years and that he spent nine hours a day playing video games.
Andrew Langdon QC, representing Mays, said the defendant had been assessed as having learning disabilities and a personality disorder.
