SWANSEA, Wales, May 27 (UPI) -- A farmhand was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for killing four people in two crimes in Wales more than 20 years ago.
A judge in Swansea Crown Court told John Cooper, 66, of Fishguard he will spend the rest of his life behind bars, The Sun reported. Cooper responded by yelling "Rubbish."
"Life for these murders will mean just that. You are a very dangerous man," Judge John Griffith Williams said.
Cooper was already in prison for holding up a group of teenagers in 1996 and sexually assaulting two of the girls when he was charged with the murders of a brother and sister, Richard and Helen Thomas, in 1985, and Peter and Gwenda Dixon in 1989. The Thomases were killed in their farmhouse, while the Dixons, on vacation in Wales from England, died on a scenic cliff path.
Investigators are trying to determine whether Cooper might be responsible for three more killings. Griff and Martha Thomas, another brother and sister on a farm, were shot in 1976 and their house burned. Flo Evans, a neighbor of Cooper, was found dead in her bathtub, fully clothed, in 1989.
Cooper once won thousands of pounds in a TV game show but quickly drank and gambled the money away.
