A 66-year-old man who confessed to police that he had beaten his partner to death in 1998 has been jailed for life, 28 years after the murder.

Trevor Dunkley, of Himley Road, Dudley, was sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday 6 November to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 10 years and 10 months for the murder of Patricia Lashley, a mother of seven who was 33 when she died.

Dunkley attacked Ms Lashley in bed at the home they shared in Hall Street, Dudley, in September 1998. He hid her body in the cellar, where it remained for around a year, before disposing of her skeletal remains in household waste bins over several weeks. Her remains have never been found.

A confession after 28 years

Before his admission, Ms Lashley had been one of West Midlands Police's longest-running missing person cases. Last seen in September 1998 and reported missing by her sister in June 1999, her family spent decades believing she had abandoned her children.

Officers from the Missing Persons Investigation Team visited Dunkley on 7 July this year. He told them: "I killed her, I'm sorry." Police excavated the Hall Street cellar, but no human remains were recovered.

Dunkley pleaded guilty in September to murder and preventing a lawful and decent burial. Sentencing him, Judge Michael Chambers KC said the killing had left Ms Lashley's baby son and six other children wrongly believing they had been abandoned. Dunkley had taken the baby to social services and claimed Ms Lashley had left him.

Detective Inspector Michelle Cordell said the confession had finally given the family some answers after 28 years, though they remain without a body or full closure.