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A killer who beat a grandmother to death in a ‘vicious and brutal’ attack while she walked her dog is facing life behind bars.
Anita Rose, 57, took her dog, Bruce, for a walk near her home in Brantham, Suffolk, early on July 24 last year.
During that walk, she encountered Roy Barclay, 56, who had spent the past two years living off-grid in the countryside trying to avoid recall to prison.
He attacked Anita with ‘numerous kicks, stamps and blows’, inflicting injuries akin to those usually seen in high speed car crashes. When she was found, Bruce’s lead was wrapped tightly around her leg.
The mum-of-six died in hospital four days later.
Prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC told jurors at Ipswich Crown Court: ‘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.’
Barclay was found guilty of murder at Ipswich Crown Court today after just two hours’ of jury deliberations following a 10-week trial.
Wearing a grey jumper, glasses and had a white beard and thinning hair, he showed no emotion as he sat in the secure dock of the court.
He will be sentenced on August 6.
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The court heard Barclay was previously jailed for a near-identical attack on a pensioner.
Mr Paxton said Leslie Gunfield ‘ended up with fracture upon fracture to his face’ and required 10 titanium plates for injuries he suffered after being attacked by Barclay.
He was found with a dog lead wrapped around his foot, which the prosecution said was similar to the way Ms Rose’s body was found, with a dog lead ‘tightly’ wrapped around her leg.
Mr Paxton said Barclay was a ‘dog lover’ who had volunteered at a dog charity while on probation, adding that a dog lead wrapped around a body could ‘almost be described as a signature of Roy Barclay’.
He added: ‘This is no coincidence. The wrapping of the dog lead is a further striking similarity that builds with all the evidence to Roy Barclay being the one and only person who attacked Anita Rose.’
Opening the case, Mr Paxton said there were no witnesses to the attack on Anita, but a pink jacket she had been wearing was found at a camp where Barclay was living rough.
He said: ‘Roy Barclay had no fixed address and lived mostly in the countryside, wandering the fields and lanes, sleeping in various makeshift camps.
‘He lived off-grid because, for two years, Roy Barclay had been unlawfully at large. He had been on the run trying to avoid the police and authorities to try and avoid being recalled back to prison.’
Anita’s jacket had Barclay’s semen on the neckline and he is believed to have kept it as a trophy.
Her phone case was also found at the camp while her Samsung earbuds were discovered at another camp Barclay had used.
Jurors heard Barclay made various internet searches after the attack, including ‘how are outside objects swabbed for DNA’ and ‘can barbed wire be swabbed for DNA’.
The prosecutor described Barclay’s capture three months later as having involved a stroke of luck.
Jurors heard Detective Constable Barry Simpson ‘saw a male walking quickly along the road’ on October 15.
The officer, who was in an unmarked car and working on the murder investigation, ‘thought the male looked similar to an image he had seen in the murder inquiry’ and stopped to speak with him.
Mr Paxton said the man was Barclay, but that he ‘lied’ to Det Con Simpson and gave his name as John Lesley, providing a false home address and saying he worked as a gardener.
The prosecutor said the officer took photos of Barclay ‘surreptitiously’ and he was allowed on his way, but a manhunt started the following day when officers determined that the man was not John Lesley.
Barclay was tracked down by police and arrested at Ipswich Library on October 21, said Mr Paxton, adding that Barclay had ‘changed his appearance’ – with a shaved head and the ‘beard’s gone’.
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