Additional reporting by Millie Bowles

A pub chef sexually assaulted and brutally murdered a woman walking her dog within hours of being fired from his job for upskirting.

Harrison Lawrence Van-Pooss, 21, was armed with a knife when he ambushed Claire Knights and then subjected her to a violent beating in what was an unprovoked stranger attack as she strolled with her Springer spaniel in Minnis Bay, Birchington, on August 23, 2023.

Canterbury Crown Court heard today that the 54-year-old talented artist was the victim of a premeditated attack by a "powerful" man seeking out a vulnerable woman, and that when she was brutally violated, his intent was to rape her.

Cause of death was given as blunt force trauma and drowning after she suffered multiple fractures to her head and face, as well as traumatic brain injury, before being dumped, deeply unconscious but still alive, in a nearby water-filled dyke.

A pathologist later concluded that her injuries, including fractures to her jaw, cheekbone and eye socket, as well as a "hinge" fracture to the base of her skull, would have been inflicted with severe force from repeated punches, kicks or stamps.

Ms Knights also sustained bruising to her neck and thighs consistent with being restrained by her attacker while alive.

Less than 24 hours earlier her killer, who has a distinctive spider-tattooed face, had been caught using his phone to film under another woman's skirt at The Powell bar and restaurant in the seaside town where he worked.

Having been sacked and police alerted, he went on the run, taking his chef's knife, and is believed to have camped out overnight in a den near to where he would confront Ms Knights as she returned to her car from a swim at the beach with her dog, Zeb.

Police were subsequently able to establish from various sightings, CCTV and eyewitness accounts that Ms Knights, who lived with her partner, Stuart Hume, and her son Elliott Knights-Sloane in Upstreet, Canterbury, had last been seen leaving the beach at 4.30pm, and that by 5pm her dog was with her murderer, close to where her body would eventually be found in marshland two days later.

Her disappearance had sparked a widespread search by police, the coastguard, Kent Search and Rescue and lifeboat crews, as well as family, friends and the local community.

Her Suzuki car was found abandoned in Shuart Lane, St Nicholas at Wade, and sadly it was her son who made the tragic discovery of her body on the evening of August 25.

Ms Knights, who also ran a dog-sitting business, and Lawrence Van-Pooss, then aged 20 and of Craven Close, Margate, were not known to each other.

In December last year he pleaded guilty to offences of murder and operating equipment under clothing to observe another without consent and for the purposes of sexual gratification.

But his admittance came only after repeated court adjournments - including at least two scheduled trial dates - and numerous psychiatric and psychological assessments while detained in high security Broadmoor Hospital.

It is now accepted that although he has a personality disorder, he does not suffer from psychosis and was not having a psychotic episode at the time.

Prior to the upskirting incident and then Ms Knights's murder, Lawrence Van-Pooss had no convictions.

Today, at a two-day sentencing hearing in front of Mr Justice Garnham and a courtroom packed with Ms Knights's loved ones, Lawrence Van-Pooss sat in the dock flanked by four Broadmoor staff members and two court officers.

Outlining the last moments of his victim's life, prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said: "The defendant ambushed Claire Knights, as she was walking back along an isolated path towards where she had parked her car.

"The defendant was a vast and powerful man. She was a lone female, wearing swimwear and flip-flops. He was armed with a knife.

"Claire Knights must have been terrified and overpowered by the defendant.

"The precise sequence of Claire Knights’s final moments are known only to the defendant. The evidence shows that he overwhelmed her, forcing her from the path, before committing a violent sexual assault on her.

"He then beat her, brutally, repetitively and fatally. The force of these blows would have rendered Claire Knights unconscious rapidly.

"The nature of the blows, following on from the sexual assault, demonstrate a clear intention to kill. The defendant assumed that he had successfully killed her.

"He then dumped her body in the dyke nearby. In the final outcome, Claire Knights took her final breath when faced down in the water, as demonstrated by the inhalation of water.

"The defendant set about hiding what he had done. Covering up pieces of evidence, taking control of Claire’s dog and ultimately disposing of her body in a dyke, where large grasses and bulrushes meant that it was hidden from view."

Although she had not sustained any knife injury, Ms Morgan continued: "The prosecution case is that the defendant used that knife to terrify and control Claire Knights.

"This defendant is a huge physical presence as he would have presented himself on the path to Claire. She was 5ft 6in, slim build.

"It is inevitable she would have been terrified, intimidated and overborne by him, and it is inevitable that her terror inhibited any realistic options she had in trying to escape.

"She was wearing a bikini and her sun hat, she had a dog with her but Zeb was not a defensive dog. He was a benign presence and went with the defendant. And Ms Knights was wearing flip-flops."

On the subject of it being a premeditated attack, not on Ms Knights herself but on a lone female, the court heard Lawrence Van-Pooss encountered several people in the area that day, it being a hot and busy summer's day.

Ms Morgan added that his intent to rape could be inferred by the subsequent DNA findings and the fact the victim's bikini bottoms had been partially removed.

The prosecutor told the court: "The defendant waits in the area. There were other sightings and there were lots of people in that area who were not attacked that day but it is this lone female wearing her swimming costume who does come to be attacked.

"It was a premeditated, sexually motivated attack on a lone female. There were a number of men who walked along this path who the defendant just passed by and who were not attacked by him," said Ms Morgan.

Asked by Mr Justice Garnham whether there had been any females on the path that day, she continued: "We don't have evidence of a lone woman. There were couples.

"We don't have evidence of a lone woman, or a lone woman wearing flip-flops and a swimming costume as Claire Knights was."

The court heard Lawrence Van-Pooss had been working at The Powell on the evening of August 22, 2023, when he was caught on CCTV indecently recording with his phone.

The landlord was informed and he sacked Lawrence Van-Pooss, telling him police had been alerted.

Having left the pub at about 8.30pm, he went home, carried out an internet search on the offence of up-skirting before packing a rucksack and leaving.

At the time, he had been living with his fiancee Aurora Lawrence. Having left their home, he sent her a message shortly before 10pm saying 'Goodbye. I love you. I never wanted any of this'.

Concerned for his welfare, she raised the alarm on social media and also alerted Kent Police, who launched a 'Missing Person' appeal to find him.

The court heard although he had his phone with him and it was working, he did not respond to any calls from those looking for him.

Various sightings however of him on August 23 - the day of the murder - included him working out at Fit Union gym in Birchington shortly after 5.45am.

He was also seen in the area of Kent Gardens at around 7.15am, and then walking towards Nether Hale Farm just before 11.30am.

By 2pm, the prosecution say he was in the area of a den, close to a railway track and crossing, and to where Ms Knights would be ultimately assaulted and murdered in an attack less than three hours later and lasting no more than 10 minutes.

In a tribute following her death, the well-known member of the Kent art community was described as "a trailblazer in life".

The sculptor's achievements included teaching art in two prisons in the early 1990s and graduating from The Margate School with a masters last year, where she was praised as "outstanding and exceptional".

The court heard she had been seen by a neighbour at home at 9.20am that day and then her car was spotted driving into Shuart Lane at 2.13pm.

Around that time, Lawrence Van-Pooss was seen on camera walking along Dane Road and then inside the Best One shop in Minnis Road where he bought sweets, a soft drink, tobacco, lighters and a large bottle of Captain Morgan Spiced rum.

That was later found in his den, virtually empty, along with sweets and clothing, including his underwear.

At 3.10pm he was spotted in the area known as Plum Pudding Island, close to his lair.

Ms Knights was then seen walking away from the beach at 4.30pm, in her bikini, the back of her hair wet, and Zeb appeared wet too. heading in the direction of Reculver Towers and back to her parked car.

The court heard it had been estimated she was attacked by her killer around 20 minutes later, based on where her body was found, after being forced off the path.

Among the items at the scene were the defendant's boots, headphones, knife and a flip-flop.

Referring to the DNA findings, Ms Morgan said: "There is a proper inference that rape must have been the defendant's intention and his motive for the attack.

"There is no way he committed an attack of this gravity without intending rape or the equivalent. It is just implausible."

With Ms Knights having been attacked and left facedown in the water-filled dyke, Lawrence Van-Pooss was seen at 4.57pm crouching down near the path and holding the spaniel around the waist.

He also spoke to a runner in that same area between 5pm and 6pm, and was then captured on Ring doorbell footage chatting to a homeowner on Dane Road as he made his way back to the Best One store with Zeb but calling him 'Ramsey'.

Once at the shop, he made the dog wait outside as he went in to buy two drinks and dog treats. He left, the dog walking with him, but returned about five minutes later to buy two bottles of bleach.

The prosecution allege this may have been in an attempt to dispose of any evidence. He was still wearing his boots, now muddy from the dyke, at 6.37pm but was barefoot and dressed in just shorts when arrested about two hours later on the seafront in Minnis Bay.

The court heard that throughout all his interactions that day he was having "everyday, coherent conversations", and that messages he had sent to his girlfriend after the murder were "entirely contrived" to give the impression he was confused and unsure as to his whereabouts.

In the months leading up to the murder, they had rowed about his inappropriate sexual behaviour, which included him watching pornography and performing a sex act on himself in a communal garden.

But his girlfriend later told a friend she believed he was using his mental health as an excuse.

Lawrence Van-Pooss did however speak to his GP and then called the Kent and Medway Mental Health Crisis Line.

In conversations in July 2023 he had asked to be sectioned, saying he was "quick to anger and aggression" and suffered from "severe thoughts", only to ring back half-an-hour later to say he did not need sectioning.

Ms Morgan told the court the defendant was "self-diagnosing psychosis" and later "exaggerated" any mental health issue when being assessed by experts.

"This man cannot accept what he has done. He is in denial about that and this defendant has, from an early stage, deployed the language of mental disorder," she argued.

"Every expert has agreed there is no impairment in this defendant's ability to form rational judgement.

"This is a man who knows what he is doing."

On arrest, initially for voyeurism, he claimed to have "done nothing" and "found himself naked" and that the dog "found" him by Reculver Towers.

But Ms Morgan said his behaviour was evidence of "manipulation" and a "contrived psychosis", and that while in custody he remained silent as to how he really came to be with the spaniel.

"The only person who knows what has happened is him and he knows that in the custody suite and says nothing about that at all," she added.

Lawrence Van-Pooss also refused to give any intimate samples and behaved erratically.

However, Ms Knights's disappearance was discovered when Zeb's microchip was checked to reveal the registered owner and police went to her home to be told she had been on a walk that day and had not returned.

Concerned for her welfare, police set up a missing person's enquiry in which it was established her phone had been in the Minnis Bay area at approximately 3.40pm that afternoon.

Her car was then found locked and secure in a layby later that night, and on the evening of August 24 her son found Lawrence Van-Pooss's den. Items inside included his underwear.

Mr Knights-Sloane then made the tragic discovery of his mum's body the following night while searching with friends the paths he knew her to use.

At a previous hearing last year, Ms Morgan told the court that in respect of the many adjournments concerning any mental health issues, Lawrence Van-Pooss had been "manipulating and malingering" for months.

This included him claiming to have no memory of events, only to then give a "preposterous" account to a medical expert just a week before his trial was due to start in June, lying that having met Ms Knights, her actions that fateful day made him angry.

Ms Morgan described his story as "an elaborate and disgraceful pack of lies" which had been "unbelievably carefully crafted' to address the scientific evidence and provide a reason for why he had acted so violently.

The court was also told that Lawrence Van-Pooss had "exaggerated his symptoms" and made an "extraordinary effort to distort" neuropsychological assessment scores.

Explaining how he had behaved "suspiciously poorly", Ms Morgan said: "Some of the scores he has achieved are triple that of a diagnosed schizophrenic detained within Broadmoor."

The eventual guilty plea entered in December came after it was conceded by his legal team led by Stephen Moses KC that the partial defence of diminished responsibility was not available.

It was also admitted by Mr Moses that his client had acknowledged his lies about his victim to be "a false memory on his part".

He will address the court tomorrow (Friday) before Mr Justice Garnham passes sentence.

Today, a heartbreaking statement from Claire’s partner of 12 years, Stuart Hume, was read out on his behalf.

He described how, when her body was discovered, “time stood still”.

The couple had met 20 years ago, while the talented artist was painting at a festival.

He described how Claire was passionate about women’s rights.

When she first went missing, Mr Hume thought she must have had a diabetic incident, and would return home.

“When they found her body it felt like time stood still,” he said.

“It was Elliott, her son, who first told me.

“No one should ever have to find their mum in such a situation.

“I felt nothing for the person who murdered Claire.”

Claire’s son, Mr Knights-Sloane, told the court of his trauma in the search for her, and the lengthy wait between court hearings, adding “this was the family’s time to speak”.

He said: “I will never be able to explain the feeling of walking through the marshes calling my mum's name.

“My mum was incredibly determined. Her travels and independence have been an inspiration to me my whole life.

“It is thanks to this upbringing that we joined together when my mum went missing, rather than falling apart.”

He also spoke of the impact his mum’s death has had on his mental health, revealing if it was not for the support of friends and family, he “would not be alive to read this statement”.

Mr Knights-Sloane also accused the defendant of “malingering, only to worsen and prolong our pain”.

“The only person who can make things better is no longer here,” he added.

Claire’s younger sister, Annie Watson, described her as “remarkable, adventurous and bold”.

She told how Lawrence Van-Pooss’s actions meant the family had to wait weeks before being able to say goodbye due to forensic examination.

Ms Watson bravely described her anguish knowing Claire, a private individual, was subjected to extensive intimate tests after death – something the defendant was able to refuse while in custody.

She also spoke of her sister’s firm belief that women should be safe to walk alone.

In March last year, Ms Knights's family and friends created a moving tribute of 98 red shoes - the number of women killed by violence in the UK in 2023 - on Birchington beach to mark what would have been her 55th birthday.

Her murder has chilling similarities to that of Kent PCSO Julia James in Snowdown, Dover, in April 2021.

She too had been walking her dog alone when she was viciously attacked by a stranger, Callum Wheeler.

Wheeler, then 21 and of Sunshine Corner Avenue, Aylesham, bludgeoned the 53-year-old mum to death in what the prosecution described as a "sexually motivated" killing.

He was also an inpatient at Broadmoor when he was jailed for life with a minimum term of 37 years at the same crown court in July 2022.

Speaking at court today, Ms Knights's sister Annie Watson said she spoke to her sister at the time about Ms James's murder.

She recalled: “I spoke to Claire at length about her death and asked if she was worried.

“Claire believed that we could not live in fear of one man’s actions.

"It should not stop us going out in the countryside along footpaths and to walk alone.

"She should have been free and safe to walk her dog and enjoy the sunshine."

The family also told the court how Claire's mother died on October 13 2023, saying the premature death of her daughter was "too much for her to bare" and caused a significant deterioration in her health.

This has left her elderly father dealing with the loss of his wife and child just two months apart.