Lost for words

SUNLIGHT streams over the resting place of Jack and Lily Lilley at Failsworth Cemetery

Fury over unmarked grave

THE grave of murder victim Lily Lilley lies unmarked at Failsworth Cemetery — while her killer Lisa Healey is to be given a taxpayer-funded change of identity.

One resident says it’s outrageous and is hoping money can be raised to inscribe the stone and inform the public of the pensioner’s resting place.

Healey (26) is due to be released on parole later this month after serving 11 years for the brutal murder of the frail 71-year-old widow in 1998.

The resident, who did not want to be named, was a childhood friend of Lily’s son John and helped police track him down to Tasmania to break the news of the murder.

Lily is buried alongside her husband Jack but has no markings on their grave. John, who suffered health problems, tried to get compensation money to get the stone engraved but was unsuccessful.

The friend, who has since lost touch with him, has a letter from John giving him permission to seek funds to get the work done.

He was given a quote eight years ago for £227 to lift up the subsiding headstone and to clean and letter it, but was not able to get a grant to pay for it.

He said: “The family would normally deal with it but there was only John and he was not in good health.

“It seems disgusting that all this money is being spent on the murderer, yet no-one could be bothered to come up with a few hundred pounds for the victim.

“Everyone says it’s terrible and then walks away and forgets about it.”

Healey was only 15 when she joined with fellow schoolgirl Sarah Davey, then 14, in beating and gagging Mrs Lilley before bundling her body into a wheelie bin and dumping it in the Rochdale Canal.

The judge, Mr Justice Sachs, described it as “unspeakable cruelty.”

The case hit the headlines last week when it was revealed that taxpayers face footing the bill to provide Healey and her child with new identities when she is freed.

It’s believed social services are behind the move so that Healey’s daughter can grow up without the infamy surrounding her mother’s name. Healey gave birth to a daughter in April after a relationship with an inmate from another open jail.