Julia James told her husband she’d seen a ‘weird’ man in the woods months before she was ambushed
PCSO Julia James told her husband she’d seen a ‘really weird’ man in the woods months before she was ambushed while walking her dog and ‘brutally attacked’ as man, 22, ADMITS killing her but denies murder
PCSO Julia James was found dead near home in Snowdown, Kent in April 2021Post-mortem found mother-of-two, 53, suffered significant head injuries Callum Wheeler, 22, admits killing Mrs James but denies murdering her
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PCSO Julia James told her husband that she had seen a ‘really weird’ man in the woods months before she was ambushed and allegedly bludgeoned to death, a court has heard today.
Callum Wheeler, 22, has admitted killing the 53-year-old Kent Police officer in Akholt Wood about 400m from her home in Snowdown, Kent on April 27 last year – but denies murder.
A post-mortem examination revealed the mother-of-two had suffered significant head injuries – which prosecutors allege were inflicted by a metal railway jack found at Wheeler’s home.
The ‘brutal and fatal’ attack sparked a widespread hunt for her killer, with hundreds of police officers spending weeks scouring land surrounding the rural hamlet of Snowdown.
Canterbury Crown Court heard today that Wheeler, from Aylesham in Kent, accepts that he killed her but denies murder.
Prosecutors alleged the PCSO had seen Wheeler a number of times in Ackholt Wood in the months prior to her death.
Mrs James ‘was herself aware of the presence of a strange male’, who she described to her husband, Paul James, as a ‘really weird dude’, Alison Morgan QC told the court.
Jurors heard the mother-of-two later pointed out the male, alleged to have been Wheeler, to Mr James during a walk together in February 2021, around two months before her death. Jurors heard the mother-of-two later pointed out the male, alleged to have been Wheeler, to Mr James during a walk together in February 2021, around two months before her death.
The court was then played footage from police body-worn video of an encounter between officers and Wheeler when he dialled 999 on April 17 – 10 days before Mrs James died.
Left and right, PCSO Julia James. She was found dead in Akholt Wood about 400m from her home in Snowdown, Kent on April 27 last year
Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Callum Wheeler, May 13, 2021
Jurors were then played footage from police body-worn video of an encounter between officers and Wheeler when he dialled 999 on April 17, 10 days before Mrs James died.
Ms Morgan told the jury: ‘He did not give a coherent reason for calling the police and he did not invite the police officers into his property.’
The footage showed Wheeler telling the officers ‘get lost mate’ and ‘I’m not talking to you’, before his father reassured them he was OK.
Ms Morgan said: ‘You may think that the footage of this visit shows the defendant to be behaving oddly’ and told the court that he had been reluctant to have ‘any meaningful conversation with the police’.
The prosecutor told the jury: ‘The evidence suggests that her attacker was waiting in the woods for someone to attack and then ambushed her. Julia tried to escape her attacker but she was subjected to a brutal and fatal attack. She suffered catastrophic injuries and died where she fell.’
She went on : ‘A heavy blunt object was used to murder Julia James and when we come on to consider her injuries you will understand why it must have been an object of that type that killed her.
‘In fact the prosecution alleges, and there may now be no dispute, that the weapon was a large railway jack.’
Ms Morgan added: ‘That item was found in his bedroom.’
She said it is the prosecution’s case ‘that there is a large body of evidence from a variety of sources that demonstrate that the attacker was this defendant Callum Wheeler’.
An image of murdered PCSO in the clothes she was wearing on the day she was killed
Police searching around the Spinney Lane area on May 6, 2021
Forensic officers at an address in Aylesham, Kent, May 8, 2021
She told the court: ‘Although he denied responsibility for the killing for some time, he does now accept that he was the person that killed Julia James, however he does not accept that he is guilty of the offence of murder.’
Several members of Mrs James’ family attended court to hear the prosecution open the case.
Mrs James’ body was found next to woodland in the Aylesham Road area at about 4pm by members of the public, with her Jack Russell dog Toby unharmed beside her.
She had been a police community support officer since 2008, and worked within the domestic violence unit at Canterbury police station.
Her death led to an outpouring of grief in the community she dutifully served for many years.
Mrs James’ family praised her as ‘fiercely loyal’ and someone who ‘loved with her whole heart’.
In May last year, more than 100 walks took place across the world to remember the mother-of-two, including many in her home county of Kent.
