STARING malevolently from a Hannibal Lecter-style mask, this is the chilling image of a man who has admitted murder - despite his victim's body never being found.
Karl Hutchings, 48, had initially denied the murder of his near neighbour Julie Buckley, 55, but changed his plea to guilty in a hearing at Cambridge Crown Court yesterday.
A police investigation was launched in February this year amid fears for the safety of Ms Buckley.
Officers found blood splattered around her bungalow home in Christchurch, near Wisbech in Cambridgeshire on February 13, and later forensically linked it to her.
Investigations also revealed that she had last been seen alive on January 28 when she was captured on CCTV buying groceries at a Budgens supermarket in March.
