Met PoliceA man has been jailed for life for raping and murdering a girl almost 50 years ago, in the oldest double jeopardy case in England and Wales.
Dennis McGrory, 75, was 28 when he sexually assaulted, stabbed and strangled 15-year-old Jacqui Montgomery in Islington, north London, in 1975.
He was tried on circumstantial evidence in 1976 but was cleared of murder.
McGrory was tried again after swabs from Ms Montgomery’s body proved to be a one-in-a-billion DNA match to him.
The teenager’s body was found by her father, Robert Montgomery, in their living room in Offord Road on 2 June 1975.
She had suffered fatal stab wounds and blunt-force trauma to her face, and had been strangled with the flex of an iron.
As a consequence of a change 20 years ago to the law regarding double jeopardy – the principle that no-one can be tried twice for the same crime – McGrory was brought before the courts again on the basis of the DNA evidence against him.
He was found guilty last month at the Old Bailey of the rape and murder of the teenager.
