Double-killer, 63, freed from prison on licence beat his neighbour, 73, to death with her wooden coffee table before breaking it up and driving off with it in her car, court told

A convicted double murderer battered his elderly neighbour to death with her wooden coffee table after being freed from prison on licence, a court heard today.

Lawrence Bierton, 63, killed 73-year-old Pauline Quinn after he was housed next door to her by authorities.

After beating her repeatedly with the table he returned to the property to break it up so he could take it away in a plastic bag before fleeing in Mrs Quinn’s Renault Clio.

Nottingham Crown Court heard audio of the brutal attack was recorded after Mrs Quinn managed to pull an emergency cord in her bungalow but her body was not found until several hours later.

Jurors were told Bierton had been convicted and jailed in 1996 for the double murder of two elderly sisters in Sheffield.

He was released from prison on licence in December 2017 before being recalled to prison in July 2018 after repeated failures to address his alcohol and drug misuse.

He was released again in May 2020 to an ‘approved premises’ with a tag to detect alcohol use but following concerns about his association with people there he left and in November 2020 was offered a bungalow in Rayton Spur, Worksop, Notts - next door to Mrs Quinn, who was found dead on November 9, 2021.

She suffered 29 separate injuries, including 12 on her head and several on her left arm and hand which prosecutors said were consistent with efforts to defend herself.

Bierton has admitted killing her but denies murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Prosecutors say the violent manner of Mrs Quinn’s death ‘leaves no room for doubt that he intended to kill her’.

Opening the case against him, prosecutor John Cammegh KC told jurors the case was complex and the details will ‘inevitably stir your emotion’.

‘We say this was a sustained attack that must have involved several blows,’ he said.

The court heard that Mrs Quinn, a mother of three, had lived alone with her dog Charlie in the one-bedroom bungalow in Rayton Spur, which largely catered for elderly people, with properties fitted with alarm buttons linked to a home security monitoring service.

Mr Cammegh said that while she was friendly towards her close neighbours, she was by nature a private person, and very particular as to who she would allow into her home. She suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and had injured her back around four months before she was killed.

She was last seen on CCTV footage just before 1pm on November 9, 2021, walking back to her home with her dog using a walking stick after visiting the shops, having left her car parked outside her property.

‘This was what we call last proof of life, this is the last time we see Pauline Quinn alive,’ Mr Cammegh said.

‘She opens the front door and steps inside in the safety of her own home.'

Shortly after 4pm, Mrs Quinn pulled the emergency cord in her living room which connects to Tunstall Alarms.

Jurors were played a recording of the call in which the operator can be heard trying to get a response from Mrs Quinn but all that can be heard was several loud thuds above the sound of the television.

Mr Cammegh said: ‘This, we say, is when Lawrence Bierton murdered Pauline Quinn in her sitting room by striking her repeatedly on her head and face with a wooden coffee table.’

He said Bierton had let himself into Mrs Quinn’s back garden, gaining entry to her house through her back door.

After killing Mrs Quinn, Bierton is caught on CCTV several times, including taking a trip to his daughter’s house nearby in Mrs Quinn’s car after stealing her keys.

He also returns to the property to smash up the coffee table - the sound of which was also recorded by the alarm system - before taking away the broken pieces in a carrier bag.

‘We say the defendant was demolishing the murder weapon, the coffee table,’ Mr Cammegh said.

He invited jurors to ‘look at his gait’ and his ‘purposeful strides’ on the CCTV footage.

‘You will see how steady and purposeful he appears on his feet,’ he said.

Emergency services were finally called to the property just after 10pm and found Mrs Quinn’s body covered in blood. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Jurors were shown a model skull of the injuries which Mr Cammegh said was a ‘visceral demonstration of what this man did to Mrs Quinn’.

He said ‘reassuringly perhaps she would have been rendered unconscious almost immediately’.

Mr Cammegh said the motive for murder was money. He said Mrs Quinn had told neighbour Susan Heggarty about an occasion when Bierton had appeared at her door asking for money. He said both women were aware of his past and it was generally known that he had been in prison for serious violence and ‘both ladies were understandably wary of him’.

‘Pauline had politely refused [to give him money] but had been left feeling somewhat intimidated,’ he said.

‘Both ladies were suspicious about the man’s lifestyle. Pauline was irritated by his failure to clear away rubbish properly from outside his property.’

Bierton was arrested 30 miles away in Sheffield the following day after offering to drive his nephew to work in the stolen car.

He has admitted theft.

The case continues