A MAN has been handed a life sentence after murdering a Barnsley woman in a ‘brutal and sustained attack’ at his flat in Leeds.
Louisa Hall, 43, originally from Barnsley, suffered more than 117 injuries in the attack at 49-year-old Steven Francis’s flat in Oatland Court, Little London, in October 2023.
Ambulance staff alerted police at 5.15pm on October 25 after being called to the address.
They had found Miss Hall naked and unconscious on the living room floor with blood around her nose and mouth and extensive bruising across her shoulders, chest and legs.
She was formally pronounced dead a short time later.
Francis, who had called the ambulance, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder and in interview told officers he did not know Miss Hall but had bumped into her in Leeds city centre that day and she had followed him to his flat.
A post-mortem examination found more than 117 fresh blunt-force trauma injuries to Miss Hall’s head, chest, abdomen, legs and arms - 45 of which were found to have come from an unknown weapon.
An injury to her neck was compatible with forceful strangulation by hands or a ligature.
The pathologist remarked that the head injuries inflicted on her were so serious that those alone could have proved fatal.
CCTV showed Francis with Miss Hall, who was a sex worker, and another woman in Top Moor Side, Holbeck, in the early hours of October 25, hours before he claimed to have bumped into her in the city centre while visiting the train station to check train times.
Other footage showed them arriving at Oatland Court at around 6am.
As part of the murder investigation, detectives revisited a rape allegation made against Francis by a sex worker in 2016, which could not be progressed to charge at the time due to evidential difficulties.
The victim, who was 22 at the time of the incident, had reported being taken back to Francis’s flat at Oatland Court in February that year and assaulted, robbed, rendered unconscious and repeatedly raped.
She was contacted by the investigation team following the murder of Louisa and agreed to a reinvestigation of the incident, which resulted in Francis being charged with two counts of rape, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, robbery and false imprisonment.
During the trial at Leeds Crown Court, the prosecution highlighted the similarities of both incidents.
He was found guilty by a unanimous verdict at the court on Wednesday, January 22 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 28 years the day after.
Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Inspector James Entwistle said: “Louisa Hall was subjected to an appalling level of violence at the hands of Steven Francis in what was a brutal and sustained attack that cruelly ended her life.
“He has also been convicted of attacking and raping another woman at his flat in 2016 in similar circumstances, and it is clear that he is a very dangerous individual who has deliberately preyed on vulnerable women.
“He denied any involvement in Louisa’s murder and in the earlier attack but, through a detailed and comprehensive investigation, we were able to completely disprove his fictitious accounts, which has resulted in him being convicted of these offences.
“We hope that Louisa’s family and friends can take at least some small measure of comfort from knowing that Francis has now been held criminally accountable and will have a long time in prison to reflect on the pain and anguish he has caused.
“We also hope the victim of the 2016 offences can find some reassurance in knowing he has been brought to justice for the terrifying ordeal he inflicted on her.”
