Murderer may never be released

An anti-paedophile vigilante from Hastings who murdered a gay man he wrongly believed to be a child molester has been told that he may never be released from prison.

Christopher Hunnisett, 28, killed supermarket worker Peter Bick, 57, just four months after being freed from jail following his acquittal for the murder of a vicar.

He was jailed for life with a minimum term of 18 years at Woolwich Crown Court in south-east London.

The judge, Mr Justice Saunders, warned he was an "extremely dangerous man" who "may well kill again" if released in the foreseeable future.

He said: "The time may never come when this defendant is considered safe to be released."

Hunnisett previously spent more than nine years in jail for killing the Rev Ronald Glazebrook, 81, in his bath and cutting up his body in April 2001.

But his conviction was quashed and he was cleared of Mr Glazebrook's murder at a retrial during which he alleged that the priest sexually abused him.

After being freed from prison in September 2010, Hunnisett made a "hit list" of men he planned to kill in his bid to rid the world of paedophiles.

Having formulated a plan to track down child abusers and rapists while he was in custody, on his release he set up false internet accounts as a "honeytrap" for sex offenders.

Mr Bick, an Asda employee from Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, was at the top of Hunnisett's list of targets, although the prosecution said there was "not a shred of evidence" that he was a paedophile.

Overnight on January 10-11 last year, Hunnisett had sex with Mr Bick at his flat before smashing his head with five severe hammer blows and strangling him with a shoelace.

Detective Chief Inspector Nick Sloan of the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team said: "This was a terrible crime, and the jury were clearly unconvinced by Hunnisett's claims about his motives for carrying out such a cruel and deliberate killing.

"Peter Bick's sister, together with her husband, was present at court throughout the trial and they had to listen to Christopher Hunnisett deliver utterly unfounded personal attacks about the character of her brother.

"They endured this with great dignity and this is testimony to how they have conducted themselves since Peter was murdered'.

"What exactly was motivating Hunnisett in the lead up to the murder and afterwards we will perhaps never really know, but there is no doubt at all that society is a safer place now that he is in prison."