Sadistic killer who murdered journalist with his girlfriend before going on the run has died in jail

21.01.2022 - 22:08 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk

A sadistic killer who murdered a journalist died while a prisoner in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus, an official report has found.

Lee Whiteley was 41.

He was convicted - together with his lover Deborah Taylor - of the murder in Heaviley, Stockport, of former Fleet Street journalist Peter England, 54, on New Year's Eve 2001.

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They stabbed him 34 times before going on a spending spree with one of his bank cards and fleeing to Gretna Green in Scotland, where a court heard they planned to marry.

A prosecutor at Manchester Crown Court said they went on the run 'like Bonnie and Clyde'.

A judge who sentenced the pair, meanwhile, said Mr England was 'slaughtered' by them inside his Buxton Road flat during a New Year's Eve party.

Whiteley, originally from Barnsley, was 23 when he was jailed for life in November 2002.

Taylor, who was from Hazel Grove, Stockport and 18 at the time, was detained for a minimum of 15 years, although her sentence was cut twice.

An official report just published by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, which carries out independent investigations into complaints and deaths in custody, said Whiteley died from a blood clot in the lungs while a prisoner at HMP Stocken in the Midlands.

He was in hospital at the time of his death on March 1 last year.

Whiteley, the report reveals, tested positive for Covid in the January and was transferred to an isolation wing.

"A nurse saw him on 17 February as he had a pain in his back and around his lungs but did not have any obvious Covid-19 symptoms and his clinical observations were all normal," said the report.

"On 1 March, Mr Whiteley reported that he was having difficulty breathing.

"An officer called a medical emergency code, a nurse