'I did not see anything wrong with killing people'

DAVID HARKER was a cold and calculating killer whose only motive for brutally taking the life of an innocent woman was a desire for fame.

His sick lust for publicity led him to pick out his perfect victim in Julie Paterson and then snuff out her life in the most horrific way possible.

She had led a troubled life, having lost her mother as a child, and looked only for love and stability up to the day she died.

Suffering from depression and reliant on valium and alcohol, and with none of her four children living with her, she was desperately unhappy and living a chaotic lifestyle.

In short, she was the ideal candidate for a wannabe serial killer on the prowl.

In contrast, Harker, then 24, was more complex. He could be intelligent, articulate, caring and polite, while also harbouring a sick obsession to mutilate people he regarded as "victims".

While appearing considerate and normal to his friends and their parents, he was a control freak who hoarded macabre books and films about murder, along with literature on how to survive in prison and avoid police questions.

He told lies to impress his friends and was prone to bouts of aggression and violence, brought on by excessive drinking.

But, tragically for Julie, it was the charming and handsome Harker that attracted her on that fateful day in April 1998 and, ultimately, persuaded her to accompany him to his flat in Harewood Grove, Darlington - never to be seen again.

During in-depth interviews at Ashworth Hospital, in Liverpool, where he was held on remand prior to his conviction in February 1999, Harker told The Northern Echo what had happened to the 31-year-old mother.

He refused to talk to the police about Julie's death, but openly admitted his guilt to me during, at first, a telephone call, then letters, and then in person.

Quietly spoken and with icy, steel blue eyes, he said: "In my eyes, I did not see anything wrong with killing people. There are a lot of people still suffering because of what I did, and I enjoy that."

He told how he and Julie had had consensual sex at his flat, before he strangled her with her tights in his bedroom.

He said she had no idea it was coming, and he could give no reason for doing it.

"It just happened," he said coldly.

Copious amounts of blood stains in the apartment, including in the basement, lay testament to his claims that he had had cut off her limbs and head in the property before he disposed of her torso in a black sack and dumped it in a derelict garden in Polam Lane.

Indeed, detectives believed he had kept her decapitated head in the corner of his bedroom for several days before deciding to remove it -yet more evidence of his twisted mind.

However, he refused to say where or how he disposed of her limbs and head.

They have never been found, despite detectives trawling through 20,000 tons of rubbish at Coxhoe tip, in County Durham, dragging rivers and ponds and searching sewers.

Her trainers, however, were proudly on show in Harker's flat - sat like a trophy on a shelf in his kitchen.

He had made no attempt to wash away the evidence or concoct a story. He did not care that he had been caught.

Calmly, and obviously wanting to shock, Harker claimed he had cooked pieces of Julie's leg with pasta, saying it was an enjoyable meal.

He may not have managed to become the serial killer he so wished to be, but he wanted to make sure he would be remembered as a cannibal killer.

And, during a series of letters to The Northern Echo, he wrote: "The coroner would be busy in Darlington if I ever got out."

In graphic detail, he said he was making a mask out of human skin and intended to use the flesh of his victims to complete it.

He said: "I would have gone on until I was caught. I was not thinking about when or why."

And he was adamant he was not mad, although he admitted that his behaviour was not normal.

He went on: "I don't see myself as God. When I was killing people, there was a feeling of being almost Godsize with a right to take life.

"I don't like fascists and sex offenders. Others I hate are trash. Certain people just seem to be innocent, so I allow them to live. Others deserve to die."

He said he was not evil, but said he was a monster, and said he had not taken Julie to his flat with the intention of killing her, but said it just happened.

Harker claimed to have killed three people, presumably to qualify as the serial killer he wanted to be, but detectives, after investigation, dismissed this as fantasy.

In fact, he was so desperate to be infamous, he was to blame for his downfall and arrest.

He told no less than 28 people that he had killed Julie in the four weeks that she was missing, even saying where he had disposed of her body to his doubting friends.

It was ultimately his boasting that led police straight to Julie - and him.

Harker was given a minimum 14-year life sentence at Teesside Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to Julie's manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The judge said he should not be considered for parole before 14 years, saying: "I have no doubt that given the slightest opportunity, you will kill again. You are an evil and exceptionally dangerous man."

The court heard he was among the top four per cent of Britain's most disturbed men, and while having no signs of mental illness, he did have psychopathic disorders.

As a result, police and Julie's distraught family and friends called for Harker never to be released.

In the hope that Harker would be turned down for parole in 2012, The Northern Echo sent then-Home Secretary Jack Straw a dossier on the case, including Harker's sickening comments.

The minister replied and said he had read the published articles with horror and had passed them to the Prison Service so they could be placed on file.

Mr Straw said that before Harker was released on parole, Julie's family would be asked their opinion.

But yesterday, Julie's father, Jim Paterson, 68, said Harker should never be allowed free.

"I have been told that he has not changed one bit, and I do not think he will ever change," said Mr Paterson, from Durham.

"He should be left to rot in prison for the rest of his life."