The discovery was made in October last year when the Planet Earth star was excavating an old pub in the garden of his Richmond home - less than 100 yards from where Mrs Thomas was murdered, chopped up and boiled by her housekeeper.
Callous Kate Webster pushed her twice-widowed employer down the stairs, strangled her and chopped her body up and boiled it and giving the dripping to local kids to eat.
Days after the slaying a box was found in the Thames by a coal man containing a 'mass of white flesh' and Mrs Thomas' foot was found on an allotment in Richmond while Webster stole the identity of her employer and even her false teeth.
But it is not until now, more than a century after the murder in 1879 and Wesbster's hanging that the head of the strict Presbyterian will finally be given a proper burial.
But an element of mystery remains as there is no record of where the rest of the childless woman's body was laid to rest, investigating officer Acting Detective Inspector David Bolton told West London Coroners Court.
He said that the skull was found by contractors using a mini digger to excavate the former Hole in the Wall pub in Mr Attenborough's garden when they saw a 'dark circular object'. Police and experts were called in and they confirmed that the skull was human. Further testing showed it belonged to white female of roughly menopausal age, missing its teeth, and it was laying on Victorian tiles.
Carbon dating of the remains by Professor Gordon Cook of the University of Edinburgh dated the skull between 1650 and 1880 partly because the bones had a marine dating, meaning the person would have eaten a lot of fish consistent with Londoners at the time.
The 'upstanding member of the community' Mrs Thomas, 55, had lived in a rented cottage just 100 yards from the pub and its stables, where he head was discovered, when she employed Irish born Webster, who had spent her life in and out of prison for offences including burglary, as a maid in January 1879.
ADI Bolton said: They couldn't get on. Mrs Thomas was a devout Presbyterian and unfortunately Webster was a drunkard frequently going to the Hole in the Wall pub two doors up.
On March 22 1879 Mrs Thomas returned home from church when she and Webster became embroiled in a fight and in a 'fit of rage' Webster pushed her down the stairs.
ADI Bolton told the coroner that Webster was a 'liar' who had fought her conviction at the Old Bailey but just before she was hanged in July 1879 she confessed, giving some evidence as to what happened.
Realising she had injured her she proceeded to strangle her to stop her from screaming and getting her in trouble.
Webster decided to do away with the body and used a razor to chop off the head. Having decapitated her she used a razor, a meat saw and a carving knife to cut the body up.
The dismembered body was put into a copper laundry vessel and she proceeded to boil up the body parts of Mrs Thomas, he said.
Records from the Old Bailey trial show witnesses talked of the 'stench' and noticed Webster cleaning and making frequent visits to the pub.
Having completed the task Webster put most of the body in a box which she tied together and enlisted an unwitting Robert Porter, the son of a former neighbour, to help her carry the box to the Thames.
As he walked away he heard a splash, but thought nothing of it until the 'mass of white flesh', at first believed to be butcher's off-cuts, was discovered in the Thames at Barnes Bridge by Henry Wheatley leading to the murder being dubbed the 'Barnes Mystery'.
Meanwhile Webster dumped the foot in an allotment and assumed the identity of her former employer, taking her money, her jewellery and even her false teeth which were in a gold plate.
It is believed she put the head in a Gladstone bag which she carried with her as she sold off Mrs Thomas's belongings before dumping it under the pub stables.
She went for a walk with Robert Porter and his father Henry, who carried the bag for her as they visited two pubs and accompanied her back to the train station. Both later noted how heavy it was.
ADI Bolton said: A few days after the murder some boys said that Kate Webster had offered them some food and said 'ere you lads I've got some good pigs lard which you can have for free'. The boys ate two bowls of lard which was unfortunately Mrs Thomas.
The boiled remains could not be traced until people became suspicious of Webster who had fled to Ireland with her young son and stolen Mrs Thomas's identity. Webster was followed, arrested and sent to the gallows at Wandsworth prison.
When the jury convicted her after an hour's deliberation she claimed she was pregnant but this was a lie. As she awaited her execution she tried to implicate her son's father but this was also lies.
When the decision was taken not to commute the sentence, she finally confessed with a priest present.
She said:"We had an argument which ripened into a quarrel, and in the height of my anger and rage I threw her from the top of the stairs to the ground floor. She had a heavy fall.
"I felt that she was seriously injured and I became agitated at what had happened, lost all control of myself and to prevent her screaming or getting me into trouble, I caught her by the throat and in the struggle choked her."
ADI Bolton said there was 'strong circumstantial evidence' that the skull, which had fracture marks consistent with the fall down the stairs and low collagen levels consistent with it being boiled , belonged to Mrs Thomas.
Coroner Alison Thompson said: Putting all the circumstantial evidence together there is clear, convincing and compelling evidence that this is Julia Martha Thomas.
Doing as 'best she could' she recorded the cause of death as asphyxia by strangulation and a head injury.
Despite extensive attempts by ADI Bolton, who was commended by the coroner for his work, no family could be traced.
taken from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8618240/Head-found-in-David-Attenboroughs-garden-was-murder-victim.html
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