Double killer who murdered elderly neighbour while on licence given whole-life order

Lawrence Bierton will die in prison after he battered his elderly neighbour Pauline Quinn to death with her own coffee table

A convicted double killer who murdered his elderly neighbour while on licence will never be released from prison.

Lawrence Bierton bludgeoned 73-year-old Pauline Quinn to death with her own coffee table at her home in Rayton Spur, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, on 9 November 2021.

Nottinghamshire Crown Court heard that the killer neighbour leapt over her garden fence demanding money for alcohol. He chased the walking stick user into her living room before striking her 14 times, 10 of which were blows to the head.

He had been out of prison for 18 months, having been jailed in 1996 for the “strikingly similar” murders of sisters Aileen Dudill, 79, and Elsie Gregory, 73.

Ms Quinn, who lived alone, had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, was able to pull a red emergency cord in her home, which recorded audio of Bierton repeatedly striking her with the coffee table.

Audio of the attack on Ms Quinn was played several times to jurors, with prosecutor John Cammegh KC saying that she was murdered “in the most egregious way”.

After the killing, Bierton was seen taking his victim’s car and visiting a relative before returning to the scene and removing the remnants of the coffee table from Ms Quinn’s house in a plastic bag.

The killer had been given accommodation in Rayton Spur while on licence from a life sentence for murdering two elderly sisters in 1995, a decision that was described by a probation service representative as “incorrect” in court and labelled a “significant mistake” by the judge, Mr Justice Pepperall.

Lawrence Bierton was on licence (Nottinghamshire Police)

Bierton’s 1996 trial at Sheffield Crown Court heard, that he and a co-defendant, Michael Pluck, had broken into the sisters’ home having previously carried out gardening jobs for them.

After entering the property in Rotherham on 25 June 1995, the pair murdered their victims as they prepared cups of tea. Ms Gregory suffered several cuts to her head and fractures to her skull, neck, and ribs consistent with someone stamping on or kicking her. Ms Dudhill had also suffered a cut to her head, fractured skull and bruises to her face and thigh.

John Cammegh KC said: “That at the very least [the 1995 killings] demonstrate his brutal and extreme violence on vulnerable and elderly ladies.”

Mr Justice Pepperall gave Bierton a whole-life order, meaning he would die in prison.

He told the killer: “The severity of Ms Quinn’s head injuries, the extraordinary area over which blood was spattered, the sickening sound of wood being smashed over your victim’s head, and the breaking of the light fitting indicate the ferocity with which you attacked this defenceless and disabled woman.

He added: “You have now been found guilty of the senseless and brutal murders of three elderly and disabled women in their own homes.

“You showed each of your victims no mercy as you callously inflicted devastating head injuries upon them in sustained attacks in which you used extraordinary levels of violence.

“The particular aggravating feature of this case is that you murdered Ms Quinn in the same brutal fashion just months after being released on licence for the 1995 murders of Ms Dudill and Ms Gregory.

“I am left in no doubt whatever that you must never again have the opportunity to walk the streets and endanger women in their homes, and that the only just sentence in this case is that you should remain in prison for the rest of your life.”

Ms Quinn’s daughter Lisa Rummery paid tribute to her “kind, generous and funny” mother who had grown to love her home where she cared for her dogs.

She said: “In a brutal and horrific moment Bierton destroyed so many lives. It’s left me heartbroken. I’m tortured by what my mum had to endure.

“She was elderly, frail and didn’t stand a chance against Bierton. I will never forgive him for this.

“He’s played a game blaming actions on alcohol and illness rather than facing up to what he has done.

“We make our own choices in this world. He is a monster who took my mum’s life and deserves to be punished.”