Marcus Coates jailed indefinitely over sex-strangle killing
Marcus Coates, left, and victim
Jennie Banner
by Keith Hunt
A twisted killer who strangled a woman
with a belt during a sex session has been jailed for a minimum of
seven-and-a-half years today.
Under the indeterminate sentence for public protection, Marcus
Coates will not be released until the parole board decides he is no
longer a danger.
Judge Philip Statman told the 44-year-old pervert as he stood
emotionless with his hands clasped in front him that he detected
little remorse for the killing of Jennie Banner.
"In my judgement, there is a good deal of self-pity within your
personality as you face up now to the inevitable consequences of
your conviction," he said.
"This is beyond doubt a case which calls for imprisonment for
public protection. There is a significant risk to the public of
death or serious personal injury."
Coates, of Ernest Road, Chatham, was cleared of murder and
convicted of manslaughter last month.
Jennie Banner's body was
found in a flat in this block in Chatham High Street
But three women on the jury wept on hearing after the verdicts
that Coates had previously been convicted of a terrifying sex
attack on a woman in front of her young child.
He was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court in April 1999 to
five years imprisonment with an extended licence period of five
years.
Jurors had been excluded from hearing about the conviction
during the latest trial.
Maidstone Crown Court was told Coates put the belt around Miss
Banner's neck and tightened it until she passed out and died.
Her body, wearing only a T-shirt pulled up over her breasts, was
left under a duvet in the bedroom of her Chatham flat with the belt
still fastened around her neck for five days.
Miss Banner, 32, had worked as a prostitute, but was not said to
be interested in bondage or "auto-erotic asphyxiation".
More than 100 mourners
attended Jennie Banner's funeral
Coates went to her home in a block of flats at Five Ways Court
on August 14 last year.
He later said they took drugs together in the living room and
she asked him to put the belt around her neck. He claimed she
pulled it tight during sex.
He added he was unable to release the belt, which had an extra
hole made in it to reduce the circumference to 26.4cm (10.4in).
The court heard Coates had on his mobile phone a photo of his
ex-wife Marina Raghunath wearing a dog collar around her neck.
She said in evidence that Coates was the dominant partner when
he would put the collar around her neck eight or nine times during
their marriage from 1995 to 1998 and pull it tight until she
started to pass out.
After the verdict, Jennie’s mother Vivian Horne said: "Jennie
was in the process of turning her life around. She was very
creative and had decided that she wanted to go to college to study
hairdressing and carve out a career for herself.
"She was a generous and loving girl
who was very popular with a large circle of friends. Some of these
had been her friends since she was at school as she was born and
had always lived in the Medway Towns.
"She loved her flat and was very proud
of it. She just wanted to live a normal life. As a family we
haven’t even begun to deal with the fact that she is no longer
here."
02/03/12
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