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Mar 06, 2024

Luke Deeley now: What happened to June Fox

The brutal killing of a great-grandmother in Wales in November 2021 is being examined in a new ITV documentary series titled Code Blue: The Killing of June Fox-Roberts. Ms Fox-Roberts was killed and

The brutal killing of a great-grandmother in Wales in November 2021 is being examined in a new ITV documentary series titled Code Blue: The Killing of June Fox-Roberts.

Ms Fox-Roberts was killed and dismembered in her home by a 25-year-old student named Luke Deeley – a man she had never previously met.

The first part of the documentary was aired last week, with the second and final episode on ITV1 tonight at 9pm.

Filmmakers were given exclusive access to the South Wales Police‘s major crime team investigating the case. The docuseries follows the story from the moment of the 999 call by Ms Fox-Roberts’ distraught daughter – who found the body – to the hunt for her killer.

Deeley was an illustration student at the University of South Wales who had recently left his student accommodation when he killed 65-year-old Ms Fox-Roberts.

He has a paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis, and told police he had been instructed to kill someone by a “higher power”.

He was first prescribed anti-psychotic medication after he was admitted to hospital for an “acute psychotic episode” in March 2019, and in July 2021 his parents contacted the community mental health team concerned about his wellbeing and behaviour. He told a consultant psychiatrist and social worker he had weaned himself off his medication.

Deeley left his student accommodation following complaints from fellow students. He is reported to have called a female fellow student a “b****” and a “c***” and threw water over her.

Ten days later, on 21 November, 2021, Deeley entered Ms Fox-Roberts’s home in Llantwit Fardre while she was alone, and bludgeoned her, before decapitating and dismembering her with an axe and stuffing her limbs into plastic bags. He also had a chainsaw that was found bloodied, but was not used in the dismemberment process.

Detectives tried to identify the killer through CCTV footage taken in the hours around Ms Fox-Roberts’s death.

Then they received a breakthrough – a 999 call from a local tyre yard.

Dubbed “container man”, a member of the public reported a “dirty guy” emerging from the back of a wagon in a nearby tyre yard.

Detective Sergeant Lauren Wells said: “We had a phone call from a member of the public who worked in a tyre yard, and it backs on to the perimeter, really of June’s estate. And he reported that he disturbed a man in one of the containers.”

“We didn’t know who ‘container man’ was. We didn’t know if the killer was going to strike again,” said Detective Chief Inspector Matt Powell.

It was now a race against time to identify the killer and arrest him.

When they arrived at the tyre yard, the man had gone but officers found him soon afterwards sitting in the alleyway of a nearby village eating sweets.

He was identified as Deeley, who had previously been reported missing after leaving his student accommodation. He shaved and dyed his hair after killing Ms Fox-Roberts.

Officers later found “demonic” artwork in the room he had vacated.

Deeley was arrested two days after killing Ms Fox-Roberts, telling police he believed he had been instructed to kill someone by a “higher power”.

In March 2023, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility at Newport Crown Court.

The court heard that Deeley was having a delusion that a group of people were “out to get him”.

He is being detained indefinitely in a psychiatric hospital under the Mental Health Act after being sentenced in April.

Judge Mr Justice Griffiths, when passing the sentence, said: “You only did this terrible thing because of your mental illness. You have no previous convictions and there’s no evidence you had any rational motive for what you did.

“You thought you were receiving messages from what you described as a higher power and were acting out commands. You also had the delusional belief there was a group of individuals out to get you.”

Defendant Roger Elias read a letter from Deeley’s parents during the trial, saying: “The case is disturbing, shocking and tragic, our hearts go out to her family.

“We can only imagine the grief and trauma they are going though. We wake up every day wishing their mother was alive and well.”

Ms Fox-Roberts’s body was found by her daughter, Abi Sheppard.

“I walked into the house, and that’s when our lives changed,” Ms Sheppard said. “I’ll never get those images out of my head.”

Ms Fox-Roberts had been the director of her family’s IT firm, and also ran a local bakery. She had been widowed 10 years before her death.

Speaking after Deeley’s sentencing, her family said in a statement: “On Sunday 21 November, 2021, our world imploded. June Fox-Roberts was taken from us in a horrific way by a complete stranger.

“June was a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and loved spending time with her extended family.

“June was so excited to meet her great-granddaughter, born earlier that month but sadly Luke snatched that chance from her.

“June had a huge heart and would welcome anyone with open arms into her home – she was well known for not letting you leave her home or garden without a cuppa or glass of wine and a good natter first.

“And she was generous, if anyone had a problem, she would do anything in her power to help – which makes it so much harder to accept Luke could be so cruel to her for no reason.

“June was not afraid of death, but she wanted to die peacefully with her family around her and Luke stole that right from her and all of us when he took her life years before her natural time.”