Rahul Sharma, 32, raped and murdered Helen Kempster near West Park

It was an alcohol-fuelled ‘two-day binge’ which ended with the slaughter of a sex worker in the early hours of the morning.

Twisted Rahul Sharma had called on his victim to perform a sex act in a ‘quiet cul-de-sac’ near Wolverhampton’s West Park.

But things quickly took a savage turn – and within 15 minutes Helen Kempster was nearing the end of her life.

She had been dragged to the ground and violently beaten, with ‘blows, kicks and stamps’ to her face and body.

One of her few remaining teeth was knocked out, her ribs were broken, she fractured her neck and she suffered a brain haemorrhage.

As she ‘pleaded for mercy’, Sharma taunted his victim and told her she was going to die. He even raped her.

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So horrifying was the violence that a judge branded footage of Sharma’s attack as ‘truly chilling viewing’.

Ms Kempster could not be saved, dying from the injuries she sustained in the brutal slaughter.

Now, Sharma is said to feel ‘guilty’ for his callous killing on June 16, 2022.

A psychiatrist who saw the killer in April 2023 said: “He told me he feels extremely guilty and has suicidal thoughts because he feels he does not deserve to live after having killed another person.”

Detectives later pieced together that the 32-year-old’s violent rage appeared to be over just a ‘small amount’ of money.

After agreeing to perform the sex act and walking to a ‘secluded, grassy’ area of Kingsland Road, Ms Kempster seemed to change her mind.

This left Sharma feeling ‘conned’ – something he was heard saying on CCTV.

What followed was his ‘senseless’ violence on Ms Kempster, ‘motivated by intoxication, anger and loss of temper’.

He made demands for his cash back and also pushed his arm down on the woman’s wrist in order to ‘snap it’ because she had taken his cash.

As her almost lifeless body lay on the ground, Sharma carried out a number of ‘rational and manipulative’ acts in his failed bid to evade justice.

He had lost one of his two mobiles during the violence and knew it would lead police to him so used the one he still had to call his missing phone.

He also did not dial 999 or get help from passers-by, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

Instead, he called his loving parents, claiming to have found a woman who had suffered a drug overdose, prompting them to rush to the scene.

Sharma’s dad raised the alarm with police, completely unaware of his son’s tale of deception.

When police and paramedics arrived at the scene of the crime, Sharma continued with his web of lies and showed them a drug packet ‘in order to bolster his false assertion’.

He was also ‘evasive’ when officers attempted to quiz him on what had happened.

Sharma was arrested but could not be interviewed by police because he was drunk.

He had consumed so much alcohol that he was spotted ‘swaying’ on CCTV.

A forensic examination indicated that Sharma’s DNA was on Ms Kempster, as well as her clothes.

But the rapist denied he was a murderer and took the matter to trial, claiming diminished responsibility.

Jurors rejected his version of events, unanimously convicting him of murder and rape after deliberating for two hours and 45 minutes.

The killer – of Hordern Road, Wolverhampton- was jailed for life, with a minimum term of 28 years, on Wednesday, February 12.

He must also remain on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

Following his arrest in June 2022, Sharma was remanded at HMP Manchester – better known as Strangeways.

In November 2023, he was transferred to the high-security Ashworth Hospital, Merseyside – which was once the home of Moors murderer Ian Brady.

Here, Sharma was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and mild autism.

But Judge Michael Chambers KC said Sharma’s mental health conditions did not ‘impact on his understanding that he was carrying out very serious violence’.

The judge said: “In other words, you knew what you were doing.”

Claims that Sharma was hearing voices at the time of the killing were also branded a ‘complete fabrication’ by the judge.

It took Sharma 18 months after the murder to make that claim to medics.

In court, Sharma’s barrister said he had ‘always accepted that he was responsible’ for Ms Kempster’s death.

He confessed at the police station that he ‘had taken a life and he was sad’, going on to accept during his trial that he ‘intended to cause really serious harm’ to his victim.

According to Siobhan Grey KC, Ms Kempster ‘ran off with Sharma’s money’ which ‘led to the violence and matters thereafter’.

Sharma had been ‘self-medicating’ with alcohol at the time, she added.

Judge Chambers said there was an ‘clear intention to kill’, telling Sharma: “You subjected her to a brutal and sustained attack, ignoring her pleas for mercy.

“You are clearly an extremely dangerous man.”

Ms Kempster ‘suffered great distress and harm’ before her death, the judge went on.

He said: “She lived a miserable existence, begging by day and working as a sex worker at night and sleeping in doorways, all to fund her addiction to crack cocaine and heroin.”

She was described by a friend as a ‘good person, who would help anyone’.