Ex-policeman who shared murder fantasies jailed

A former police officer who once plotted to become a serial killer has been jailed again for sharing fantasies online about raping and murdering women and girls.

Brian Darby, 80, received a life sentence in 2002 for attempted murder after breaking into a woman's home in west London and putting a wire around her neck.

Since his release on licence in 2017, he was found to have made indecent images of children and written online about strangling, smothering and drowning women.

Darby, from Enfield in north London, previously admitted a string of charges relating to these offences. At Wood Green Crown Court on Friday, he was sentenced to four years in prison, with an extra two years on licence.

The court heard that Darby - who worked as a health and safety officer for the BBC in the 1980s - began looking at indecent pictures of children online almost as soon as he was freed.

He was arrested in February for creating and distributing indecent images of children, and police then found a series of online chats in which he had shared rape and murder fantasies.

Prosecutor Bartholomew O'Toole told the hearing Darby had used Reddit to write about a sexual fantasy involving killing children.

Another post detailed the "strangulation of his wife with family gathering around to voice encouragement and advice".

Darby also wrote online that schools should "train girls to be sex slaves and dominatrices", while women should be killed at the age of 30.

Judge John Law said Darby was "emotionally detached and indifferent" when quizzed about these offences and did not appear to be embarrassed or ashamed.

He said the online rape and murder fantasies "echo" Darby's 2002 convictions for attempted murder, conspiracy to murder and aggravated burglary.

Assessing Darby as a dangerous offender, the judge pointed to his "entrenched interest in violent sexual material involving children and adults" and his pattern of offending.

Darby was sacked as a PC at Leicestershire Police in the 1970s when he was convicted of indecently assaulting boys, the court heard.

In 2001, he admitted attempted murder and was convicted at trial of conspiracy to murder alongside his girlfriend Jeanette White.

The Old Bailey heard White was "under the spell" of Darby as they exchanged around 450 pages of letters about serial killing, rape, cannibalism, and necrophilia.

By 2000, the fantasies had been turned into reality as the couple plotted to murder a woman and her children in their home in Westminster, while Darby answered adverts from women looking for a room to let so that he could stalk them.

A 45-year-old mother narrowly escaped death when Darby called at her home in Ealing, west London, posing as a BBC researcher.

He placed a wire noose around her neck intending to rape and kill her, but she managed to escape into the street, Darby's 2002 sentencing hearing was told.

Olivia Beach, representing Darby, said her client blamed his actions on "addiction which is something out of his control and there is nothing he can do about it".

He pleaded guilty to nine obscene communications charges, three counts of making indecent photographs of a child, and two counts of distributing indecent photographs of a child.

After the hearing, Det Ins Andy Cook from the Metropolitan Police said: "Darby is a vile individual whose previous offending makes this case all the more disturbing.

"We launched an investigation as soon as we received intelligence that he was suspected of uploading indecent images of children to the internet."

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