Addict jailed 35 years for killing teen

A COCAINE-ADDICTED former nightclub bouncer has been jailed for at least 35 years for the rape and murder of heavily-pregnant teenager Nikitta Grender.

Carl Andrew Whant appeared to yawn as he was found guilty by a jury of raping the 19-year-old before stabbing her to death and setting her body on fire.

Miss Grender’s family made an emotional plea for Whant, 27, to tell them the truth yesterday after a judge said the full facts of what happened in the early hours of 5 February 2011 may never be known.

Days after murdering Miss Grender, who was girlfriend of his best friend and cousin Ryan Mayes, the window salesman visited her grieving parents with flowers.

Miss Grender’s uncle Michael Brunnock said: “Nikitta was so young and beautiful.

“Together with Ryan, they were to become very proud set of parents. This has been ripped from them by Carl Whant, who has never had the decency to tell us the truth.”

Whant fatally stabbed Miss Grender, who was eight and a half months pregnant with a girl, at her home in Newport, south Wales, after he had left a house party he had been at with her boyfriend.