A teenager Lily Sullivan walked down the street with her depraved murderer just before he strangled her and dumped her body in a pond after she rebuffed his advances for sex – before her mother unknowingly watched him escape.
The 18-year-old was callously murdered by Lewis Haines after meeting the father-of-one inside a nightclub in Pembroke, west Wales and then rejecting his sexual advances just before Christmas last year.
Unsettling CCTV video captured her and the 31-year-old after they met at a nightclub wandering through the peaceful neighbourhoods.
Minutes after she was strangled at Mill Pond beauty spot, her mother Anna Sullivan – who was sitting in a garage waiting to pick up her daughter – unknowingly watched her daughter’s killer leave the crime scene.
Footage from December 17 was released by the Crown Prosecution Service ahead of Haines’ sentencing.
Judge Paul Thomas QC said: ‘Lily of course, tragically, cannot give evidence about what happened in the lane during that period. Lewis Haines has chosen, as is his right, not to give evidence at the hearing.
‘I am sure a degree of intimacy occurred in the lane. I am equally sure it did not progress to sexual intercourse or anything near it. I am sure that did not happen because Lily did not want that to happen.’
Haines had become ‘frustrated’ when Lily made it clear she did not want ‘to go as far as sexual intercourse’, the judge said.
The court heard Lily’s cream lace top was found on the ground next to the water – while her phone and brown leather jacket were in the alleyway.
Haines claimed that he strangled Lily when she threatened to tell people he was a ‘rapist’ and said his daughter would be ‘ashamed’.
Earlier the court was shown footage of the killer walking past Lily’s mother. Mrs Sullivan had been waiting to pick up Lily after the night out at the nearby Green Garage.
She had spoken to Lily at 2.47am when she said: ‘I’ll be there now mam. I’m on my way. I’m a couple of minutes away. I’m nearly there.’
Prosecutor William Hughes QC said Mrs Sullivan’s call was then cut off from her daughter as she frantically tried to call her back.
The mother made 30 calls to her daughter but there was no answer and it went to voicemail.
The father-of-one launched the attack after the pair walked to the Mill Pond, where he left her semi-naked body face down in the pond water.
Haines then fled the scene as Lily’s mother was waiting to pick up her daughter on December 17, 2021.
He then went home to tell his girlfriend Maisie John: ‘I have strangled somebody. They are in the Mill Pond. I’ve been in the Mill Pond.’
He later confessed to his parents, telling his mother: ‘Sorry mum, I have strangled a girl and she is in the pond.’
The court heard Haines told his mum and step-dad that he met Lily in the nightclub.
The pair had kissed after meeting in the Out nightclub on December 16 and later went to a nearby alleyway together where they became more intimate. DailyMail reports.
Lily was pronounced dead at 6.02am before a post mortem by Dr Stephen Leadbeatter found her injuries consistent with ‘manual strangulation.’
The father-of-one has admitted murdering Miss Sullivan but denied sexual misconduct.
But after a trial of facts, Judge Paul Thomas QC concluded Haines had killed the teenager after she rebuffed his sexual advances.
‘It is clear that Lewis Haines wanted to ensure that Lily died. His intention was to silence her,’ the judge said.
‘He didn’t want anyone to know what had happened in the lane.
‘I am sure, however, having been in that lane for some time with Lily and having had intimate contact with her up to a point, Lily decided that she was going home to meet her mother.
‘She made it clear from the phone call, if nothing else, to her mother that she did not want the intimacy between her and Lewis Haines to go as far as sexual intercourse.
‘Fuelled as he was by drink, I am sure that Lewis Haines was frustrated by this because he had expectations and hopes that it would go further.’
Haines claimed Miss Sullivan threatened to accuse him of rape and he did not want his partner and family to find out.
The judge said: ‘His account of her threatening to tell people what he had done to her does in fact have an element based in truth about it.’
The court heard Haines had a ‘great deal to lose’ because he was in a relationship and had daughter – and had wanted to ‘silence’ Lily.
The judge said: ‘Lewis Haines struck Lily on several occasions. That was done with significant force.
‘He then strangled her, probably to death, before putting her in the Mill Pond where she would not be easily seen at night in the murky water.
‘I do not accept that he went into the water to save Lily. If he went in it was to put her there and not to pull her out.
‘His intention was to silence her. He had a phone with him at all times. He was close to the main street albeit late at night. He passed many houses.’
The judge also said the location of Lily’s phone and jacket was significant, Wales Online reports.
‘I find she did not leave those voluntarily at that spot,’ he said. ‘I find further that she did not leave the alley of her own volition but was forcibly taken to the Mill Pond by Lewis Haines.
‘Her body, when recovered, was naked from the waist up. Her skimpy top was found slightly damp on vegetation near the Mill Pond. I come to the conclusion she was not wearing that top when she went into the river. Had she been, it would have been completely saturated. I find it was removed from Lily against her will by Lewis Haines.’
The court heard Haines had shown ‘sexual interest’ in Lily during the night out before he was warned off by friends.
Mr Hughes said: ‘He was warned off more than once and reminded that he had a girlfriend, that he had a child and Lily’s age of 18 [was] cited.’
Haines’ schoolfriend Charlene Jones later tried to stop them leaving together by shouting to him: ‘You have a girlfriend and a baby at home. She is only 18.’
Haines fled the scene and he was captured on CCTV walking past Lily’s mum Anna Sullivan at the nearby Green Garage.
Mrs Sullivan had been waiting to pick her daughter up after speaking to her on the phone at 2.47am.
Mrs Sullivan attempted to call her daughter back 30 times after the call with her daughter was cut short before she spotted Haines walking – not realising that he had murdered her daughter just minutes earlier.
She decided to follow Haines due to his behaviour. The bereaved mother had unknowingly spotted the killer ‘walking casually, swinging his arms. at 3.09am when he started to ‘act strangely’.
She then lost sight of him as he disappeared into the woods.
The judge added: ‘He began to act strangely, running across the road even though there was no traffic and walking towards the Bush school. He was shaking his head and holding his head in his hands.
‘The person Anna Sullivan saw at this point was her daughter’s killer Lewis Haines.
‘Mr Haines was aware that Anna Sullivan was waiting for Lily at that location.’
Haines told police: ‘I strangled her’ when they arrived at his parent’s address. He later said ‘What the f*** have I done?’ at the custody desk at the station.
Haines previously admitted manslaughter but pleaded guilty to murder a week before his trial.
Judge Paul Thomas QC adjourned the hearing for sentencing on Friday.
He is expected to sentence Haines to life in prison with a recommendation of a minimum term behind bars.
