IT WAS a brutal, sadistic and perverted attack on a vulnerable woman who was left to die in the most horrific and humiliating way.

No one will ever be able to understand the extent of the excruciating pain Majella Lynch was forced to endure at the hands of drug-fuelled monster Daniel McBride, whose desire for sex saw him subject her to an inhumane assault that robbed her of her dignity and ultimately her life.

We may never know if the pair knew each other – that is something the police have never been able to piece together - but for the jury there was no question over the 43-year-old’s guilt.

It took them just nine hours to convict him of murdering the 51-year-old by inserting a shampoo bottle inside of her with such force that it torn through her organs and into her abdomen.

He will be sentenced later today.

Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Inspector Ellie Hurd, said after the verdict: “Daniel McBride carried out a horrific, humiliating and sadistic attack on an extremely vulnerable woman for his own perverted purposes.

“Having invited himself into Maj Lynch’s home, he callously inflicted horrendous internal injuries to her, leaving her to die a prolonged and no doubt excruciatingly painful death.

“Daniel McBride has repeatedly lied about what happened that night and showed no remorse for his actions which can only have added to the uncertainty and distress of her friends and family.

“I hope today’s verdict and the sentence which follows can provide a degree of satisfaction that some justice has been achieved for Madge.”

Majella's injuries were so horrific that just a brief description in court on the first day of the trial saw one spare juror collapse and faint, forcing the judge to clear the court.

Experts told the court that it would not have been possible for Majella to have done this to herself or to have consented to it, due to the sheer extent of the pain it would have caused, so the question was who.

CCTV footage taken from outside her basement flat in St Mary’s Road, Southampton, showed a man, with a distinctive gait enter the property in the early hours of April 18.

He remained there for around three hours before he was caught on camera leaving, holding a carrier bag.

Initially McBride denied it was him and claimed he had no idea who Majella was – but as police gathered more and more evidence he knew the net was closing in on him and he admitted he had been there.

As police disclosed the evidence they had against him – including blood on the chest of drawers in Majella’s bedroom which matched McBride’s DNA – he began inventing a story to fit the evidence in the hope the jury would fall for his lies.

To both police and in the stand, he confidently lied and lied, making out he was not the villain, but the hero who only went into the flat after he heard a woman cry for help and found Majella, a chronic alcoholic, already in pain.

But there was one factor he could not explain away – the fact he was the only one seen going in and out of the flat during the time that medics say Majalla suffered her injuries.

His defence tried to claim that there were no cameras on the back door of the flat, but several witnesses told how the garden was so overgrown it would have been almost impossible for someone to get through, let alone all the fences they would have had to jump over to get there.

So police were able to put him at the scene, at the time the injuries were caused and just a little digging into his background found that he had an interest in violent sexual activities both in his own relationships with previous girlfriends and through the pornographic websites he visited online.

He had also previously admitted to former girlfriends that he liked older women.

That night he was on the prowl for sex, having had an argument with his girlfriend and then turned down by not one but two different women he met while out on the town that night.

He saw a light on in Majella’s flat and he went to investigate in the hope of satisfying his sick desires.

And it seems he did, using a shampoo bottle he subjected mum-of-one Majella, who was vulnerable to exploitation, to a sadistic attack which left her in agonising pain.

She was found a few hours later by her carers who unaware of what had happened, managed to get the reluctant patient to hospital where doctors were shocked to discover the cause of her pain – a shampoo bottle inside her abdominal cavity.

She underwent emergency surgery to have it removed but tragically the damage had already been done – severe peritonitis had set it and despite the best efforts of doctors to clear any infection, the injuries caused by the bottle had cemented her fate and she died two days after the attack on April 20.

The jury was told that to find McBride guilty of murder they had to be convinced he had wanted to cause her serious injury – due to the size of the bottle and the force it was inserted, it would have been obvious such an act would cause horrific injuries.

  • LITTLE is known about the monster that robbed Majella of her life in such a sickening way.

But yesterday the court got a small insight into his criminal past.

In 1985 he was convicted for robbery for which he received a custodial sentence but that did not deter his criminal ambitions.

In the early 1990's he was convicted for aggravated burglary, wounding with intent, GBH, robbery with possession of a shot gun, for which he got life in prison.

However, he served just seven and a half years before being released on licence.

Yesterday Judge Akenhead told McBride he was facing 30 years minimum behind bars.

McBride's barrister Oba Nsube QC told the court that his client did not intend to kill her, he didn't go equipped to do so and had been of "good behaviour" whilst on remand.

  • UNLIKE most cases of its kind, an image of murderer Daniel McBride will never be seen by the public.

That was the ruling by Mr Justice Akenhead at Winchester Crown Court yesterday after a jury convicted the 43-year-old of killing Majella Lynch.

The Daily Echo made representation to the court asking for consideration to overturn that ruling, before Judge Akenhead, prosecutor William Mousley QC and defence barrister Obe Nsube QC.

We argued that it was right and proper that justice be done in the eyes of the public and sought clarification as to why McBride's photograph should not be seen.

However, Judge Akenhead ruled that there were just a handful of cases that went before the British courts that warranted such an order to be kept in place.

The Daily Echo is therefore prevented from showing his photograph as we are bound by the Contempt of Court Act.