Man admits phone box snatch murder

Last updated at 15:39 12 April 2006


A man today admitted killing a 15-year-old girl who was snatched from a phone box near her home.

John McGrady, 48, pleaded guilty to murdering Rochelle Holness, who vanished in September last year, after leaving her home to call her boyfriend.

Her mutilated body was found in black plastic bin bags near a rubbish shoot in Milford Towers, Catford, south London, where McGrady lived.

McGrady, who had previous convictions for rape and false imprisonment, was remanded in custody at the Old Bailey to May 15, when will be sentenced.

Anthony Orchard, prosecuting, said the court would require a psychiatric report before sentencing.

McGrady, a heavy-drinking handyman, was warned he would receive a life sentence at the next hearing which would also determine the minimum term he would serve.

Rochelle is thought to have been snatched at knifepoint from the telephone box near the flats on a Sunday evening.

Police believe she was strangled and then cut into nine pieces in the bathroom in the seventh floor bathroom.

The dismembered body was then placed in five bin bags which were placed in a supermarket trolley and wheeled down to the fifth floor.

Rochelle had been missing for three days when McGrady, who had once worked at a butchers, cut his wrists and confessed to his girlfriend.

After calling 999, she followed a blood-trail and discovered the bags.

McGrady was arrested after treatment for, it is believed, superficial cuts.

Rochelle's devastated father Denroy, who had been searching for her with other members of the family, stumbled on the murder scene.

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