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Mass killer buried lover under patio

Friday 06 March 1998 01:02 GMT
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A FORMER Broadmoor inmate and mass killer murdered his lover and buried her under a patio, then shot himself, an inquest at Windsor's coroner's court was told yesterday.

Paul Beecham, 55, killed Rita Riddlesworth with a single blow to the head, buried her in the garden and told her sons she had gone to visit a friend. Two weeks later he was found dead at the home they shared in Bracknell, Berkshire. East Berkshire coroner Robert Wilson recorded a verdict that Mrs Riddlesworth, 51, was unlawfully killed and Beecham committed suicide.

Beecham, sent to Broadmoor in 1969 for the manslaughter of his mother, father, grandfather and grandmother, was released in 1985. He met Mrs Riddlesworth through the League of Friends in 1981.

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