Man found guilty of murdering mother-of-six while she walked dog

A man has been found guilty of murdering a mother-of-six while she walked her dog last year.

Roy Barclay, 56, had denied the murder of Anita Rose in what prosecutors called a “vicious and brutal attack” in which the grandmother was subjected to “numerous kicks, stamps and blows”.

But a jury at Ipswich Crown Court found him guilty of the murder of the 57-year-old after around two-and-a-half hours of deliberation on Wednesday.

Ms Rose left her house to walk her dog Bruce in Brantham, Suffolk, on the morning of 24 July last year, Christopher Paxton KC, prosecuting, had earlier told the court.

She was found unconscious with serious head injuries at about 6.25am by a cyclist.

She died four days later at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

The judge, Martyn Levett, said: “The sentence is one that inevitably is going to be life in prison, and the length of it is going to be very lengthy.”

Mr Paxton said Barclay, of no fixed address, “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,” said Mr Paxton.

“He had been on the run trying to avoid the police and authorities to try and avoid being recalled back to prison.”

Jurors were told that Barclay had previously pleaded guilty, over a separate incident in 2015, to grievous bodily harm with intent over an attack on an 82-year-old man in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex.

The pensioner, Leslie Gunfield, had told Barclay that he would inform security about him going through rubbish bins at a Co-op supermarket, the court heard.

Mr Gunfield was left with serious injuries to his head and required 10 titanium plates for fractures he suffered after being attacked by Barclay.

Barclay was released from prison for the attack on Mr Gunfield in February 2020.

He will be sentenced on 6 August.