Double killer, 63, bludgeoned gran with coffee table while on licence

Lawrence Bierton, 63, admits killing Pauline Quinn, 73, but denies murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

He had been sentenced to life at Sheffield Crown Court in 1996 over the deaths of Elsie Gregory, 72, and Aileen Dudhill, 79, at their home in Rotherham, in 1995.

The killer beat one of his victims to death while the other was stabbed.

Jurors were told Bierton was first released on licence in 2017 but then was recalled to prison in 2018 for “repeated failures to address his behaviour” and drug and alcohol misuse.

He was released again on licence in May 2020 and “following concerns about his association with certain individuals”, was offered a bungalow next door to Mrs Quinn’s rented council property in Rayton Spur, Worksop, Notts, in November 2020.

A so-called “alcohol tag” to monitor Bierton was removed eight months before Mrs Quinn’s death in November 2021, after he complained of swelling in his legs, John Cammegh KC, prosecuting, told the jury.

He added: “Our case is that the violent manner of Pauline’s death leaves no room for doubt that he intended to kill her.

“What is unusual about this case is that the defendant admits that he killed the deceased.

“What he did is not in issue. The issue for you to decide will be whether or not he was of diminished responsibility at the time.”

The prosecutor warned jurors they may feel distress during the evidence but urged them not to let emotion cloud their judgment.

Mr Cammegh said bloodstains on the ceiling and walls at the home of Mrs Quinn, and skull and facial fractures, proved the “visceral” nature of the attack on her.

CCTV evidence presented to the jury showed Mrs Quinn, who walked with a stick and suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, returning to her home in her car at about 12.55pm on the day of her death.

It is alleged she was murdered shortly after 4pm on November 9, when she pulled an emergency cord installed in her home. Mr Cammegh said banging could be heard on a recording of the lifeline monitor’s activation. He said: “This, we say, is when Lawrence Bierton murdered Pauline Quinn in her sitting room by striking her repeatedly about the head and about the face with a wooden coffee table.”

The camera footage also captured Bierton, who initially drove off in his victim’s car, walking in the area. This was evidence that he appeared to be “steady, purposeful, sober, calm and collected in the period after the killing”, Mr Cammegh said.

Bierton is alleged to have removed the remnants of the bloodstained coffee table from Mrs Quinn’s home in a carrier bag.

He is then said to have driven in her Renault Clio to a male relative’s property in Sheffield, before being arrested. As he was seized at around 10pm he told the relative: “You’re not going to like this… I’ve f****** killed somebody.”

In initial police interviews he offered no comment and denied wrongdoing, but later made “various admissions” about hitting the victim with a table to “keep her quiet”.

The trial at Nottingham Crown Court continues.