Man found guilty of rape and murder of childhood friend

A young man who was entrusted with escorting his girlfriend safely home after a night of drinking was convicted of raping and murdering her.

Wesley Streete denied this, insisting instead that he “accidentally killed” his childhood friend Keeley Bunker during sex in September last year and left her body in a park and hid it among tree branches.

Bunker, who was 5ft 11in tall and weighed just 80lbs, was discovered by her uncle in Wigginton Park, Tamworth, when a search party set out.

Streete had told jurors he had consensual sex with Bunker after they “started flirting” on the way home.

However, on Wednesday, the jury found him guilty of the rape and murder of Bunker following a trial at Stafford Crown Court.

He was also found guilty of two counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and three counts of sexual acts with a child. The charges relate to previous years.

Streete had met Bunker and her best friend Monique Riggon for an evening in Birmingham after the two women had attended a rap concert.

They took a taxi back to Tamworth on September 19 and walked to Riggon’s house. Streete was then assigned to escort Bunker back to her house.

Bunker told her friend, “I have Wes… Wes will bring me back, everything will be fine.”

But prosecutors allege that Streete killed her and then repeatedly lied to her family and police, initially claiming she was still alive when they parted ways.

Prosecutors told the jury that Streete changed his testimony at least four times between his arrest and the trial.

Jacob Hallam QC said: “We accept that the truth is that he took Keeley’s life and sexually abused her – a young woman who trusted him.”

He told jurors that it would have taken “sustained effort” to take Keeley Bunker’s life “… to lose consciousness, 10 to 15 seconds of pressure on the neck is required.”

Her uncle Jason Brown found her body after she was reported missing, and another member of the search party testified in court that he let out “the most horrible scream or roar I have ever heard in my life.”

The court heard that rigor mortis had set in and there was no pulse.

During evidence, Streete claimed they had consensual sex and that he “put my arms around her neck and accidentally killed her.” He then lied to Bunker’s family, friends and police about what happened because he was “scared.”

“I didn’t know how to behave and explain to other people how she died because I was ashamed of myself and very afraid to explain it to the police – to everyone,” he said.

“My mom and my dad – everyone.”

Streete said the two went for a walk together and “then started flirting.”

He told jurors that Bunker was never his girlfriend. Video footage of the two shown to the jury showed them “playfully fighting” and her “annoying him,” he told the court, not Bunker trying to escape him.

He claimed they wanted to have sex, but at some point he “put his forearm around her neck” and realized she was dead.

“I started panicking, pacing, trying to run away because I was scared, really scared,” he told jurors.

He said he never thought to call the police, but instead placed the body in the bushes, then “put it in the pond” and took off her jacket “because you could see it in the creek and I was afraid people would find it.”

Bunker remained face down in the water and Streete left the scene to go home, wash his clothes and go to sleep. He later returned “quite often” to cover her with more branches, he said.

During a drive in which the police were tracing the last steps of Streete and Keeley, suspicious detectives asked him for his phone on instructions.

The drive took place while the search was already underway, and an hour after Keeley was found, police arrested Streete.

When asked if he had any questions during the journey to the detention block in Cannock, he replied: “Not really.”

Jurors were told that later on the journey, Streete spoke of being hungry and “asked if there would be anything to eat when he got there.”

During cross-examination, Hallam asked Streete if he was “selfish.”

Streete replied, “No, I put them in the pond and I have to sleep with them.”

Jurors were told that Streete was assisted in court by a professional mediator who sat nearby but observed social distancing measures.

Detective Inspector Cheryl Hannan of Staffordshire Police said: “Wesley Streete and Wesley Streete alone is responsible for Keeley’s untimely death.

“Her friend, like Keeley, trusted him to walk her home that night, and the fact that she didn’t make it home is Wesley’s fault.

“The lies he told from the beginning made it clear that he had something to do with her disappearance.”