A man with previous convictions for rape has been jailed for life with a minimum of 33 years for the sexual murder of a 21-year-old woman whose death he confessed to while being arrested for robbing an Asda supermarket — having taken graphic photographs of her body before going on a violent rampage across Dewsbury.
Michael Moore, 38, also known as Michael Doherty, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court after admitting the murder of Courtney Angus, whose body was discovered at his address in Batley, West Yorkshire, in July last year. Moore also pleaded guilty to theft and three counts of threatening others with a bladed article.
Prosecutors told the court that Courtney had been staying at Moore’s address for several days before the killing. On the day of the murder, Moore expressed a romantic interest in her and threatened to kill himself when she rejected him. In a message to Courtney, he said: “I’m fed up of this life, fed up of being nice, and to be honest it’s not just you, I can’t take much more of life.” Courtney’s response, read to the court, was characteristically kind: “It’s not my fault I don’t want a relationship. I haven’t led you on or filled your mind with anything. I’ve been a good friend to you, I’m sorry.”
The murder, prosecutors said, “involved sexual and/or sadistic conduct.” In its aftermath, Moore took a series of graphic photographs showing Courtney naked and covered in blood, including a selfie alongside her as she lay beaten and dead on his sofa. He then telephoned a friend and admitted “I’ve killed someone,” before sending a voice note at 3am claiming she had come at him with a knife and was “dead on his sofa.”
Moore then went on a violent rampage across Dewsbury — stealing from local shops and threatening supermarket staff with a knife — before being arrested while brandishing a large blade in the town centre during a raid on Asda. At the point of his arrest, he told officers: “Get armed response and SIO to me now because I’ve got murder, I’ve got a dead body in my house.” He also threatened police with the blade as they moved to detain him. When officers raced to his home, they discovered Courtney’s body inside.
It can now be reported that Moore has previous convictions for rape, arson, assaults, robberies and harassment.
In an emotional victim impact statement read to the court, Courtney’s mother Diane Angus described a grief that had transformed her life entirely. “Since the murder of my daughter, my life is not the same,” she said. “Some days the grief is loud and some days it is quiet, but it is always there. It’s a pain that doesn’t fade with time, it simply changes shape. I wish I could hold her again. There is a constant ache of missing her, who she was and who she would have been and the future we were meant to share. Grief doesn’t mean I’ve stopped living, it means I loved deeply and still do and I always will.”
