Schizophrenic student, 26, used an axe and chainsaw to dismember 65-year-old great-grandmother

A dangerous paranoid schizophrenic used an ax to dismember a woman he’d never met before after becoming obsessed with Satan and demons, a court has heard.

Luke Deeley, 26, was armed with an ax and a powerful chainsaw when he broke into the home of ‘caring and motherly’ June Fox-Roberts, 65, in the early hours of Nov. 21, 2021.

The art student fell Mrs. Fox-Roberts, a mother of three, brutally beat and decapitated them before removing her limbs and placing them in plastic bags.

The victim’s daughter, Abigail, made the gruesome discovery in the dining room of the three-bedroom house in Llantwit Fardre, near Pontypridd, South Wales, after being unable to contact her mother.

Deeley was later found in a caravan in a nearby yard where he lived, with CCTV footage showing him talking to himself and singing while wrapped in a blanket alone.

Prior to his arrest, Deeley believed a “higher power” was telling him to kill someone, while also shaving off his beard and dyeing his hair to change his appearance.

A subsequent search of his flat found ‘demonic drawings’ that he had shared with other students in Cardiff before they asked to be moved because of his erratic and threatening behaviour.

Deeley admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and is now indefinitely detained in a psychiatric hospital.

Mrs. Fox-Roberts, a retired IT consultant, ran a pub in the village.

Prosecutor John Hipkin KC told Newport Crown Court that a forensic reconstruction of the murder showed a chainsaw covered in blood, although it was “not used in the dismemberment process.”

Dressed in a pale blue shirt and royal blue tie, Deeley came off the wharf nervous and unnerved as the grisly details of the crime were brought to court.

Mr Hipkin said Deeley was seen taking off his cap and shoes near St Anne’s Drive, where Ms Fox Roberts had lived since 1985.

He said: ‘The defendant entered through an unlocked door and disturbed Mrs Fox-Roberts who met him in the hallway.

In the pathologist’s report, Dr. RIchard Jones noted that June Fox-Roberts’ head had sustained blunt force injuries that appeared to have been sustained in life.

These injuries included a blow to the forehead that must have rendered her unconscious. There were compression-type injuries to her torso suggestive of stamping, fractures to her left forearm sustained during life, which represented defensive-type injuries.

“From the hallway of the property, the defendant dragged June Fox-Roberts into the dining room of the property and placed her in a tarpaulin. He proceeded to behead and dismember her and place her limbs in separate pockets using an ax found on the scene to accomplish this.”

Mrs. Fox-Roberts’ German Shepherd dog was in the house at the time.

Just ten days before the incident, the court heard Deeley throw water at a sorority mate and call her a “b****” and a “c***.”

The prosecutor added: ‘A complaint was made by other students to the rental agent and the defendant left the premises, leaving behind all his belongings.

“A subsequent search of that room by the police revealed a quantity of artwork of a demonic nature drawn by the defendant.”

Deeley had a delusion that a group of people were “out for him” at the time of the murder, the court heard.

He has been prescribed antipsychotics after his family became concerned about his behavior in 2019 but “turned away from it.”

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Tom Wynne told the court: ‘Luke Deeley suffered from an abnormality of mental function, namely paranoid schizophrenia.

“Deeley’s ability to understand the nature of his behavior, to make rational judgment and to exercise self-control was “substantially impaired” as a result of his condition.”

Dr. Wynne said the appropriate punishment would be for Deeley to remain in high-security Ashworth Hospital, near Liverpool.

Roger Elias, defending himself, read a letter from Deeley’s parents that said: ‘The case is distressing, shocking and tragic, our hearts go out to her family.

“However, we can only imagine how much grief and trauma they are in. We wake up every day wishing their mother was still alive.’

In a victim impact statement, Ms Fox-Roberts’ daughter Abigail said: ‘Nothing could have prepared me for what happened and what I saw when I got home that Sunday.

‘I close my eyes and I see the tarpaulin, my mother’s nightgown – these images never leave me.

My childhood home, my safe place, destroyed in the most violent act I have ever seen or imagined. My life imploded, I couldn’t function, I was in shock.’

Another family member said Deeley’s actions were like fiction or a twister horror movie.

Mr Hipkin explained that Deeley had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and because of the nature of his illness the Crown had accepted his plea for Ms Fox-Roberts manslaughter because of diminished responsibility.

Judge Mr Justice Griffiths detained Deeley indefinitely, telling the court: ‘This was a brutal murder and mutilation of a woman after you entered her house at night.

“I am convinced that the most appropriate course of action to deal with you under the Mental Health Act is for you to be held in Ashworth High Security Hospital.

‘There is a good chance that you will commit serious crimes again if you are not detained. Detention is necessary to protect the public from serious harm. There’s no telling how long that will be.’

Mr Justice Griffiths issued a hospital order under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act and a restraining order under Section 41 meaning Deeley could be detained indefinitely.

He added, “You only did this horrible thing because of your mental illness. You have no previous convictions and there is no evidence that you had a rational motive for what you did.

“You thought you were receiving messages from what you described as a higher power and carried out orders. “You also had the delusion that there was a group of individuals out to get you.”

In a statement released later, Ms Fox-Roberts’ family said their “world imploded” with her death.

“June was a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and enjoyed spending time with her extended family,” she said.

“And she was generous, if anyone had a problem, she would do anything in her power to help — which makes it so much harder to accept that Luke can be so cruel to her for no reason.”