Life for cellar murder paedophile

Lawlor also has convictions for physically abusing two ex-girlfriends

A convicted paedophile has been jailed for life for murdering his girlfriend and burying her in a cellar.

Frederick Lawlor, 54, denied murdering Dorothy Carre, 56, in 1999 by stabbing her at a house they shared, but he was convicted by a majority verdict.

Mrs Carre's body lay undiscovered at Equitable Street in Rochdale for eight years, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Lawlor is already serving an indeterminate prison sentence for sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl.

The judge, Mr Justice Holland, ordered him to serve a minimum term of 17 years for Mrs Carre's murder, to run concurrently.

Mrs Carre was last seen alive by her GP in March 1999 at her home in Bacup, Lancashire, when she said she had split from her partner because he was violent towards her.

Dorothy Carre was last seen by her GP in March 1999

Shortly afterwards she moved to the Equitable Street house with Lawlor.

She had been in a relationship with him for four years at this time, but her family did not approve and suspected he was abusing her.

When she moved to Bacup with him, she did not tell her family where she was going and they reported her missing.

But when police traced her, she said she did not want her family to know where she was.

Mrs Carre's family were concerned that they had not heard from her but decided to respect her wishes.

However, in 2001 when they still had not heard from her, they contacted Lawlor's family who told them she had left him for another man.

Flagstones lifted

It was not until January 2006, when her family became concerned again and reported her missing for a second time, that a police search was launched.

On 28 February 2007, officers searched her last known address at Equitable Street and found the flagstones on the floor of the cellar were uneven and cracked, meaning they must have been lifted.

Mrs Carre's remains were found under the flagstones

In March police found the remains of a body wrapped in a duvet under the stones, and Lawlor was arrested.

A post-mortem examination showed the bones had at least 10 stab wounds to the vertebrae, which a pathologist told the court would have required "extreme" force to inflict.

DNA testing provided "extremely strong" evidence that the remains were those of Mrs Carre.

Despite evidence linking him to Equitable Street, Lawlor denied ever living at the address and claims Mrs Carre left him in 1999 to go and live in the Republic of Ireland.

He is already serving an indeterminate sentence for sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl and offering her for sex with other men while he watched and filmed them.

The jury were not told of his convictions until they had given their verdict.

In April last year he admitted 18 sex offences and was jailed at Caernarfon Crown Court.

Lawlor, described by police as the teenager's "evil controller," had taken her to beaches at Llanddulas and Pensarn and offered her to men for sex there and at his flat in Abergele, Conwy.

The judge said the offences were the "most evil and unpleasant" the court had ever dealt with.