Michael Doherty jailed 33 years for Courtney Angus murder

Michael Doherty was jailed for life with a minimum term of 33 years after admitting the murder of courtney angus at his home in Batley. Leeds Crown Court heard that Angus, 21, had moved into Norfolk Street days before her death and had made clear she did not want a relationship with him.

Leeds Crown Court

Prosecutor Craig Hassall said Doherty had made his interest in Angus clear and had texted her threatening to kill himself on the day of the killing. Angus replied: "It's not my fault Mikey, I don't want a relationship, I told you this from the start, I haven't led you on. I've been a good friend to you."

The court heard that during the evening of 25 July, the pair were at the house they shared in Norfolk Street, Batley, and Angus rejected his advances towards some sort of intimate relationship. Doherty strangled her there. A pathologist found that pressure on the neck from strangling, together with head injuries from blunt force trauma, caused her death.

After the killing

The attack did not end there. The court heard Angus suffered 76 injuries, was sexually assaulted, and parts of her body were cut off. Doherty then used his phone to take indecent images of her and sent a message to a friend saying: "I've killed someone, ring me please."

The next morning, he went on a stealing spree in Batley and nearby Dewsbury. At 21:15 BST, staff followed him out of an Asda store in Dewsbury after he left without paying and produced a large knife. Police later found him in Dewsbury town centre brandishing the knife.

Doherty in Dewsbury

When officers confronted him, Doherty said: "Get armed response and SIO to me now because I've got murder, I've got a dead body in my house." He had changed his name from Michael Moore in 2018 and had prior convictions for raping a stranger on her way home from a nightclub and torching a former partner's car.

The sentence leaves Doherty serving at least 33 years before any parole review, and it follows his guilty plea at Leeds Crown Court to the murder of a 21-year-old woman who had moved into his house only days before she was killed.