Carl Langdell has today, 3 June, been sentenced to life imprisonment at St. Albans Crown Court after pleading guilty to the murder of Katie Locke.
Adrian Foster, Chief Crown Prosecutor for Thames and Chiltern Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said: “This case involved the tragic murder of 23-year-old Katie Locke by Carl Langdell in Waltham Cross last December.
"We know that nothing will bring Katie back to her family and friends, but we hope that the conviction and today’s sentence bring them at least a small sense that justice has been done. Our thoughts are very much with them all at this time. We have worked closely with Hertfordshire Constabulary since this investigation was launched and as a result of the hard work and diligence of the prosecution team, a just outcome has been achieved."
Background
After chatting on the dating site ‘Plenty of Fish,’ for about two weeks, Katie agreed to meet Langdell on Wednesday, 23 December 2015, in London for their first date of dinner and drinks. Langdell had told Katie that he was a lawyer and had his own firm, which were lies. The truth was that over the previous two years he had increasingly suffered from mental illness and had spent time in psychiatric hospitals. At the end of this first date and in the early hours of 24 December, Katie agreed to go back to a hotel in Waltham Cross with him. At the hotel, Langdell strangled her in the hotel room before disposing of her body in the hotel grounds.
On the morning of Christmas Eve, realising that Katie had not returned home, her family and friends made a concerted effort to identify Langdell. Through internet searches they identified him and contacted him through Facebook. Langdell replied saying Katie had left in a taxi and he did not know where she was. They established an address in Waltham Cross he was associated with and Katie’s Father travelled there desperate to locate his daughter. On arrival, he was shocked to learn that Langdell had just admitted to his Mother that he had killed Katie, so he called the police and Langdell was located and arrested.
Despite telling the police where to locate Katie’s body when he was arrested, Langdell answered ‘no comment’ during police interviews, but was evidentially linked to the murder. On 18 March 2016, at St Albans Crown Court, due to the strength of evidence against him, and recognising that justice had caught up with him, he pleaded guilty to murdering Katie.
