COULDN’T LET GO

Man Jailed After Keeping His Friend’s Body in a Freezer for 2 Years

Damion Johnson told police he was “overcome by grief” at the loss.

A man in Britain who kept the body of his friend in a freezer for two years has been jailed. Damion Johnson, 53, told police he was “overcome with grief” at the death of his roommate John Wainwright, 71, in September 2018. A prosecutor in the case said Johnson had known Wainwright for 27 years and had moved into an apartment with him as his carer in 2015. After Wainwright’s death, Johnson was “not thinking rationally and was not ready to let go” of Wainwright, the prosecutor said, and was “unable to inform the authorities” of the death as time went by. Wainwright’s body was eventually discovered at a waste management business when the freezer was removed from the apartment in August 2020 after Johnson was arrested on unrelated matters in December 2019. Johnson was sentenced to two years for preventing a burial and given concurrent six-month sentences for three counts of fraud.