Cody Ackland will serve a minimum of 31 years for the murder of Bobbi-Anne McLeod.
Image source, Devon and Cornwall Police
A man fascinated with serial killers has been jailed for a minimum of 31 years for murdering an 18-year-old woman he abducted from a bus stop.
Bobbi-Anne McLeod’s body was found in woodland near Plymouth in November.
Cody Ackland, 24, pleaded guilty to murder at an earlier hearing.
The court heard he was obsessed with serial killers, in particular Ted Bundy, and had searched the internet for Fred West and Ivan Milat in the weeks before the murder.
Prosecuting at the sentencing hearing, Richard Posner told Plymouth Crown Court Ackland had searched DIY stores for tools including hammers, crowbars and cutting tools.
He said: “Cody Ackland led a double life.
“He held such an unhealthy fascination and desire to imitate serial killers. His fascination was to become an unimaginable wicked reality for Bobbi-Anne.”
Police uncovered 3,216 images on Ackland’s phone, many of a “disturbing and dark nature” and reminiscent of horror films.
Some also depicted dismembered or dead bodies, post mortems and murder scenes.
The court heard Ackland struck Miss McLeod on the head with a claw hammer at the bus stop in Leigham as she waited for her bus between 18:05 and 18:15 GMT.
Image source, Devon and Cornwall Police
He took her in his car, a red Ford Fiesta, and drove to Bellever Forest car park on Dartmoor where he repeatedly attacked and then murdered the teenager.
Mr Posner told the court Ackland burned her handbag nearby along with other items from the vehicle.
Ackland travelled to Bovisand where he stripped Miss McLeod and left her body in undergrowth.
The next day he drove to Tamerton Foliot in Plymouth and threw the hammer into the River Tamar, the court heard.
The defendant also threw a carrier bag containing his and her blood-stained clothing into nearby allotments in Coombe Lane.
Ackland then went for pizza with a friend, attended practice with his Rakuda bandmates, got a takeaway and drank into the early hours of the next day with friends at a pub lock-in.
Friends recalled him being “happier than usual”, Mr Posner said.
On Tuesday 23 November, Ackland left work at a valeting department of a Plymouth garage about midday, the court heard.
At 13:30 he walked into Charles Cross Police Station and confessed to the murder.
In police interviews, Ackland said he was “‘solely responsible” and claimed he had turned himself in “to help the police and Bobbi-Anne’s family”.
The court heard he asked for a map and told detectives where he had disposed of Miss McLeod’s body.
In interview he told the police that the killing was not on his mind because it was “so out there… like a film or fantasy”.
Image source, Devon and Cornwall Police
He admitted that he did not know how he felt about the murder and it felt like someone else had done it.
At about 15:45 GMT on 23 November detectives found Miss McLeod’s body in vegetation down a steep incline halfway down the densely wooded lane.
She had died from multiple injuries to her head and face inflicted during a “prolonged and frenzied” attack, Mr Posner said.
Reading from a preprepared statement, Mr Poser said on behalf of the family that Miss McLeod was a “beautiful girl” who “lit up” their lives, and life would “never be the same without her”.
They said Miss McLeod had “so many life plans”, and those had been taken away from her and her family.
“We can’t even contemplate a future without her in it. There will never be anything the justice system can impose that will ever come close to what he deserves,” the statement said.
Image source, Devon and Cornwall Police
Ray Tully QC, mitigating, said Ackland had come forward and confessed and “some victims’ families never get to hear that”.
“Some perpetrators of offences choose to hide their terrible secrets and they never engage in at least divulging the true horror of what they have done,” Mr Tully said.
“Some might think silence is better, I don’t profess to know – that will depend on the individual receiving the information as to whether they would rather know or not know.”
Summing up, Judge Robert Linford said Ackland was a “highly dangerous person” who may never be released.
He said the defendant’s interest in serial killers went “beyond morbid fascination”.
Judge Linford said: “She had the whole of her life in front of her until it was brutally and savagely snuffed out by you.”
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