The man who murdered PCSO Julia James in a “brutal and vicious” sex attack as she walked her dog has been handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 37 years. Callum Wheeler, 22, waited for the mother-of-two, 53, in Ackholt Wood armed with a large metal bar before ambushing her near her home in Snowdown, Kent, on the afternoon of April 27 last year.  

In April 2021, Callum Wheeler, then 21, killed off-duty PCSO Julia James, 53, while she was walking her dog in a Kent woodland.

Callum Wheeler was found guilty of the murder of PCSO Julia James while she was out walking her dog in the Kent countryside near her home.

On the first day of his trial at Canterbury Crown Court, the 22-year-old from Aylesham, Kent, admitted killing the off-duty police community support officer but denied murder.

However, a jury found him guilty of murdering the married mother of two, 53, who was discovered dead on the edge of a field near Ackholt Wood in Snowdown, Kent, at around 4 p.m. on April 27, 2021.

It took them less than an hour of deliberation to reach the conclusion that he was guilty.

Who exactly is Callum Wheeler?

On February 2, 2000, Callum Wheeler was born.

Callum Wheeler yelled “who told you?” as he was arrested on suspicion of murdering PCSO Julia James after barricading himself in his bedroom.

He was 21 years old and unemployed at the time of Julia James’s death.

Wheeler lived with his father in a house on Sunshine Corner Avenue, in the village of Aylesham, Kent, about eight miles from Ms James’s death.

Wheeler had no prior convictions or cautions against him at the time of the offence.

During the trial, prosecutor Alison Morgan QC described him as a “angry, violent, strange, highly sexualised man.”

Callum Wheeler lived in a detached house on Sunshine Corner Avenue in Aylesham, Kent.

Wheeler was arrested in his bedroom on May 7, 2021, ten days after the PCSO was killed. On May 10, he was charged with murder.

On 11 May 2021, he appeared in person at Medway Magistrates’ Court, where he spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth, and address during a brief hearing.

Wheeler accepted responsibility for Ms James’s death but denied murder at the start of his trial at Canterbury Crown Court on May 9, 2022.

Throughout the trial, he was represented by defence barrister Oliver Blunt QC, who did not testify on his client’s behalf.

Alison Morgan QC, the prosecutor, told the jury Wheeler had been to the location where Ms James was attacked at least four times before her death.

Ms James had seen Wheeler three times in Ackholt Wood in the months leading up to her death, according to the trial.

Julia James, 53, was a married mother-of-two and a PCSO who was walking her dog Toby in the woods near her home in Snowdown, Kent, on her day off when she was attacked and killed on April 27, 2021.

She mentioned a “really weird dude” on the woodland path to her husband Paul James twice in early 2021, and again in February 2021, when she was walking in the woods with Mr James and pointed Wheeler out to him.

Gavin Tucker, a gamekeeper for a farm that includes Ackholt Wood, saw Wheeler walking across a field rather than the established footpath seven months before the killing, on 21 September 2020.

Mr Tucker confronted Wheeler, but he told him to mind his own business and that he was looking for a train station.

Later that day, he was seen by Kevin Hawker, who had been alerted by Mr Tucker and was driving down Snowdown Road, walking towards the back of the houses at The Crescent, Snowdown, where Ms James and her husband lived.

Gavin Tucker, a gamekeeper, photographed murder suspect Callum Wheeler walking through fields near Aylesham, Kent, carrying a blue holdall with what prosecutors claim is the murder weapon poking out.

In the days leading up to the attack, a number of witnesses saw Wheeler carrying a blue and black holdall with a long object poking out of it. Prosecutors claimed this was the metal railway jack that was used to murder Ms James.

On the 17th of April 2021, 10 days before the killing, two PCSOs responded to Wheeler’s home after he made an abandoned 999 call.

Wheeler was heard laughing behind his front door, calling the PCSOs “phoney” and saying they were “not real police.”

Wheeler accessed a number of pornography websites and Googled the term “rape” in the days before Ms James’s death, the trial heard later.

The day of the attack was:

Wheeler was seen walking in the direction of a gap in the hedge from Sunshine Corner Avenue to Adisham Road at 12.37pm on April 27, 2021, the day Ms James died.

At 1.08pm, CCTV captured him walking down Ratling Road with a bag containing a long object protruding from it, which prosecutors claimed was a metal railway jack used to murder Ms James.

Handout CCTV of Callum Wheeler walking on Roger’s Close in Aylesham, Kent, on April 27, 2021, with a blue and black holdall and a long object poking out

Prosecutors believe Wheeler was in Ackholt Woods around 2 p.m., while Ms James left her home at 2.12 p.m. with her Jack Russell dog Toby.

Her last message on her phone was sent at 2.25pm, shortly after she arrived at the wooded area.

Her Apple smartwatch showed she took her usual route until her heart rate spiked at 2.30pm, when she abruptly exited the wooded area and walked along the side of a field.

After 2.35pm, there was no movement, and her last heart rate was recorded at 2.43pm.

According to the prosecution, Ms James “ran for her life” to escape her assailant and was pursued before being bludgeoned to death with a 97cm-long cylindrical bar used to lift train tracks.

After Wheeler was arrested, police seized the metal railway jack from his bedroom, and forensic experts later discovered Ms James’s DNA on the tool.

Ms James suffered a broken left wrist after tripping and falling or being knocked to the ground, as well as catastrophic head injuries.

Ms James’s body was examined post-mortem and no evidence of “sustained or violent sexual assault” was found.

Wheeler’s DNA, on the other hand, was discovered on the left breast of Ms James’ white vest top, which she was wearing beneath a jumper and a raincoat.

Julia James was walking her dog Toby in the same clothes she was wearing when she died.

Later, a family walking through the woods noticed her dog Toby running around with his lead still attached but no owner.

At around 4 p.m., they discovered Ms James’s body lying face down at the end of the farmer’s field and dialled 911.

Wheeler was seen walking around with a blue holdall with a long object protruding from it, covered by a Tesco carrier bag the day after the attack.

Among those who saw Wheeler was a gamekeeper named Gavin Tucker, who saw him in the area in September 2020.

Wheeler said he was new to the area and hurried away, but the gamekeeper managed to capture a short video clip and still image, which was later used in a police appeal, and called police.

When police arrived to arrest Callum Wheeler, 22, he told them, ‘yous are f****** dead.’

Wheeler is said to have returned to pornography websites in the days following Ms James’s death and read two articles about her murder.

On May 7, 2021, he was arrested at his home after barricading himself in his bedroom.

Wheeler exposed himself to female officers and attempted to masturbate in front of them while in police custody, telling one member of staff that Ms James “deserved to die” and that “his case was different because she was a copper.”

It was also claimed that if he was released, he would return to the woods and rape and kill a woman.