Murder of Jane Longhurst

Jane Longhurst was a British special-needs teacher and musician who was killed on 14 March 2003 by Graham Coutts, a guitarist and part-time salesperson living in Brighton who was dating Longhurst's best friend. Longhurst's partly decomposed body was found burning in woodland in West Sussex on 19 April 2003, after Coutts had kept it hidden for roughly a month, initially in his flat in Hove and later in a storage unit at Big Yellow Self Storage in Brighton, which he visited eleven times before staff noticed a smell and alerted police.

Coutts admitted causing Longhurst's death but claimed she had died accidentally during consensual erotic asphyxiation, describing it as the first sexual act between them. The prosecution disputed that the two had been lovers and argued that Coutts had invited Longhurst to his flat under false pretences before attacking and killing her to satisfy a long-standing sexual interest in violence against women, particularly strangulation. Evidence at trial described Coutts's self-reported fetish for necks and strangulation dating back to age 15, his history of consultation with a psychiatrist in 1991 about fears his thoughts might lead to criminal acts, and his admitted addiction to internet pornography, including violent material simulating strangulation, rape and necrophilia, which he had accessed the day before Longhurst's death.

Expert pathology evidence was contested: Home Office pathologist Vesna Djurovic testified that Coutts must have been aware of a medical emergency for two to three minutes before Longhurst's death became inevitable and that stopping at that point would have saved her, supporting a finding of murder. Defence pathologist Richard Shepherd testified that death could have occurred within one or two seconds via vagal inhibition. Witnesses for the defence and prosecution disagreed over whether Longhurst had ever engaged in breath-control sex play with other partners; her boyfriend and a previous partner denied having done so with her, while prosecution witnesses described her relationship with her boyfriend as stable and happy.

Coutts was convicted of murder on 3 February 2004 (sentencing reported the following day) and given a life sentence with a 30-year minimum, later reduced to 26 years on appeal in January 2005. In July 2006 the House of Lords ruled that the jury should have been offered a possible manslaughter verdict, and the conviction was formally quashed by the Court of Appeal in October 2006, with a retrial ordered. That retrial began at the Old Bailey in June 2007, and on 4 July 2007 Coutts was again convicted of murder by an 11–1 majority verdict, receiving a further life sentence with a 26-year minimum.

The case, and particular the role of violent internet pornography in the crime, prompted a public campaign led by Longhurst's mother, Liz Longhurst, alongside police and politicians, calling for restrictions on "extreme" pornographic websites. This contributed to the UK government's 2006 announcement of new legislation, which came into force as Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 on 26 January 2009, criminalising possession of "extreme pornographic images."