A musician obessed with serial killers has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 31 years for the murder of teenager Bobbi-Anne McLeod.
Cody Ackland
Cody Ackland was unknown to the police when he bludgeoned the 18-year-old with a claw hammer in Plymouth last November. He pleaded guilty to murder at a hearing last month.
Ms McLeod was last seen at a bus stop after setting off to meet friends. It was here that Ackland attacked her before loading her into the footwell of his Ford Fiesta and driving her 20 miles to the Bellever Forest car park on Dartmoor, where he murdered her.
He then burnt her handbag and loaded her blooded body into his boot and drove 30 miles back towards Plymouth to Bovisand, around seven miles from her home, where he stripped her naked and left her in undergrowth.
He later threw away her clothes in an allotment before spending the next 48 hours socialising with friends.
Three days later, Ackland turned himself in and confessed, telling detectives where he had dumped her body.
Plymouth Crown Court heard on Thursday how Ackland, who was a guitarist with local indie band Rakuda, led a double life and had a secret morbid fascination with serial killers.
Richard Posner, prosecuting, said Ackland had conducted extensive searches about “their crimes, the aftermath of such crimes, and the bodies left behind in days leading up to Bobbi-Anne (McLeod’s) death”.
He said he had also been searching the web pages of DIY stores for “hammers, crowbars and cutting tools”.
“Cody Ackland led a double life. When he left home on 20 Novemberand drove through Leigham in Plymouth towards the bus stop where Bobbi-Anne was,” the prosecutor said.
“He held such an unhealthy fascination and desire to imitate serial killers. His fascination was to become an unimaneagable wicked reality for Bobbi-Anne.”
Mr Posner said: “His interest in the macabre presents as deep-rooted; a fascination with death, murder and murderers and the means to commit murder.”
Ian Wilkinson, senior crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service in the southwest of England, said on Thursday: “Bobbi-Anne was just 18 years old when her life was taken away in the most cruel and shocking manner.
“As this case reaches its end, our thoughts are very much with Bobbi-Anne’s family as they continue to live with what Cody Ackland did.”
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