A FUGITIVE has been found guilty of beating a mum-of-six to death while he lived off-grid for two years to avoid jail for an attack on an OAP.
Roy Barclay subjected Anita Rose to “numerous kicks, stamps and blows” on her face, head and body.
PAAnita Rose was beaten to death as she walked her dog[/caption]
PARoy Barclay has been convicted of murder[/caption]
The 57-year-old had been walking her dog Bruce when she was discovered on a path with bootmarks on her face.
At the time, Barclay, 56, was living in makeshift camps in the countryside and “wandering the fields and lanes”.
He had been “unlawfully at large” for two years and went on the run to avoid being recalled to prison following an attack on a pensioner in 2015.
Barclay has now been found guilty of murder following a trial at Ipswich Crown Court.
On July 24 last year, Anita left her home in Brantham, Suffolk, to walk Bruce “as she often did”.
The mum-of-six was found by passers-by after being subjected to a “vicious and brutal attack”, jurors were told.
Bruce’s lead was tightly wrapped around her ankle in a bid to stop the dog from “running off”.
Anita was rushed to hospital but died four days later after suffering injuries likened to a road traffic accident.
At the time, Barclay “lived mostly in the countryside, wandering the fields and lanes, sleeping in various makeshift camps”.
He was wanted by police after he caused grievous bodily harm with intent to an 82-year-old man in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex, in 2015.
Prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC said: “In his mid-40s, he (Barclay) fractured nearly all of the bones of an 82-year-old’s face, having taken him to the ground in 2015.
“Anybody that attacks an 82-year-old man in that way displays a ruthlessness and callousness that defies logic.”
The court heard a pink jacket worn by Anita on the day she was attacked was found at one of Barclay’s makeshift camps.
Barclay kept the jacket “as a trophy” and it had his “semen on the neckline”, the prosecutor said.
His walking boots, which “amounted to the murder weapon”, were found at the same camp.
Police searching a different camp Barclay used discovered Anita’s phone case and her Samsung earbuds.
Mr Paxton said Barclay made various internet searches after the attack, including “how are outside objects swabbed for DNA“.
He continued: “Two very different worlds collided: Anita, partner to Richard, a mother and grandmother, out with the family dog Bruce, before she went off to work.
“Her world collided with Roy Barclay’s world, a desperate man on the run from police for two years, having been in prison for beating Leslie Gunfield’s face to a pulp.
“Roy Barclay took Anita Rose’s life in an explosion of violence.
“Blow after blow, stamp after stamp and kick after kick.
“Roy Barclay’s determination to keep his liberty and save his skin is revealed in the brutality of the injuries he inflicted on Anita Rose.
“Slight and slim Roy Barclay might seem, but his force, his brutality, is revealed in what he did to Leslie Gunfield and Anita Rose.”
Barclay will be sentenced on August 6.
PABarclay kept Anita’s jacket as a trophy[/caption]
the mum had left her home as normal to walk her dogPA
PABarclay was seen heading on the same path[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
