Lily Sullivan: Killer looked mum of murdered teenage girl 'straight in the eyes' after attack

CCTV footage shows Haines walking past Lily Sullivan's mum as she waited to pick her daughter up

The man who murdered 18-year-old Lily Sullivan looked her mother "straight in the eyes" just moments after strangling her daughter and dumping her body in a pond.

Lewis Haines, 31, murdered 18-year-old Lily Sullivan after meeting her in a nightclub in Pembroke just before Christmas last year.

Chilling CCTV seen in court showed the moment he walked past Lily's mum, Anna Sullivan, at the nearby Green Garage while she waited to pick her daughter up.

Just minutes earlier, Lily had been attacked by Haines and left for dead.

Lewis Haines was caught on camera walking past Anna Sullivan, who was waiting to collect her 18-year-old daughter. Credit: PA

The distraught mother has branded Haines “pure evil” and said she could never forgive him.

"The events of the night Lily died go over in my mind constantly and I wake up in the night picturing Lily in the water, wondering if she knew what was happening, if she was scared,” Ms Sullivan said in a victim impact statement read to the court.

“I wish I had stopped Lily going out that night.

“I picture the male responsible for Lily’s death who I saw in the garage and wish I’d confronted him.

“He looked me straight in the eyes, knowing what he had done.

“Knowing I was that close to her, I wish I’d gotten out of my car and walked. I will always wonder if I could have saved her.

“These thoughts never leave me and I can’t stop thinking about it. I have to live with the fact that I will now never know what really happened to Lily that night.

“I suspect the actual truth will haunt me for the rest of my life.”

Lily Sullivan was on a night-out with her friends in Pembroke the night she was killed. Credit: Media Wales

Haines was jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years and four months for the "dreadful, callous" murder.

Sentencing Haines, Judge Paul Thomas QC said: “You strangled her face-to-face, she must have been terrified.

“An 18-year-old girl all alone in the dark with a powerful man.

“She was entirely at your mercy and you, Lewis Haines, showed her none.

“You were entirely thinking about your own self-preservation.”

Lily had 'so much to look forward to'

Mrs Sullivan described her daughter as a "beautiful girl inside and out" who was "bright, funny and a talented artist".

She told the court: "I suffered 14 miscarriages prior to Lily being born. I had almost resigned myself to not having any children so when Lily was born it felt amazing. She gave purpose to my life, she was my little bit of normal.

"Everything made sense when she arrived. We were so close. She was a beautiful girl inside and out. She didn't see that and lacked self-confidence.

"She always saw the good in people. She was not an angry person or confrontational. Lily was always good in a crisis.

"She was bright, funny and a talented artist. She was a typical teenage girl who loved clothes and makeup and mostly music. She adored house music. She had just started going out with friends on a regular basis.”

Mrs Sullivan added that her daughter had “so much to look forward to”. She had just started driving lessons and was going to college.