Leonne Weeks was murdered by Shea Peter Heeley (Picture: PA)

A man who murdered a 16-year-old girl by stabbing her 28 times has been jailed for at least 24 and a half years.

Shea Peter Heeley, 19, was sentenced on Monday at Sheffield Crown Court for killing Leonne Weeks in South Yorkshire in January last year.

He lured her to a secluded spot in Dinnington, near Rotherham, and stabbed her 28 times “for no reason at all”, a judge was told.

Leonne Weeks, 16, was stabbed 28 times (Picture: SWNS)

The court heard how, after his arrest, he said he had always known that he would kill someone and later told staff in a secure mental hospital: “I like that I have done it, I just do. I like killing.”

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Heeley, of Doe Quarry Lane, Dinnington, admitted murder last month.

Leonne’s body was found hidden under a sofa on a pathway. She died from multiple stab wounds to her head and upper body, police said.

Judge Paul Watson QC said Heeley had befriended Leonne about a year before, as they were both from Dinnington, and they had been at a party together two days before the killing, on January 15, 2017.

He deliberately targeted her to satisfy his interest in killing and invited her to the dark path.

Leonne Weeks’ mother, Paula Appley (centre), and twin brother Levi outside Sheffield Crown Court (Picture: PA)

In a statement read to the court, Leonne’s father, Darran Weeks, said; “Leonne was taken away from me by the evil act of a cold-hearted killer.”

Mr Weeks said: “She was full of life. She had such a caring nature and was loved by everyone around her.”

The judge said: “In short, this was a pre-planned, brutal and pitiless killing of an innocent young girl who had her whole life before her.”

He said Leonne’s family will have to “live with that agonising loss and the living nightmare of your evil crime for the rest of their lives”.

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The judge said she was a “lovely, lively, funny and caring young girl”.

Shea Peter Heeley has been jailed for 24 and a half years (Picture: PA)

Miss Weeks’ body was hidden under a sofa (Picture: PA)

Prosecutor Tim Roberts QC said Heeley had told a nurse in custody “he had always known that he would kill someone from an early age”.

He said that he “did not feel anything”.

Heeley said: “I’ll go to prison or hospital, but probably prison. If that’s what it takes to stop me killing people, that’s where I need to go.”

At Rampton top security hospital, he admitted killing Leonne.

Mr Roberts said: “He said he could hear her screams.

“He grabbed her by the throat and stabbed her. He said he had deliberately selected that place to meet her as it was secluded and he intended to harm her. He said he heard voices telling him to kill her and he had demons inside him.”

The court heard that Heeley had not been diagnosed with a mental illness, but may have an emerging personality disorder.

Mr Kent QC, defending, said his client told staff at Rampton: “I like that I have done it, I just do. I like killing.”

He said Heeley told prison staff: “Knowing I have killed someone satisfied me.”

He said he also had fantasises about killing all the time and “hitting people on the head with hammers”, which “cheered him up”.