PENSIONER, 83, ‘STABBED TO DEATH BY FORMER SOLDIER WITH GRUDGE AGAINST DOG WALKERS’
AN ex-soldier with a grudge against dog walkers brutally stabbed a pensioner to death after ambushing him during his morning stroll in woodland, a court heard yesterday.
Alexander Palmer, 24, launched such a ferocious attack on 83-year-old Peter Wrighton that police at first believed it had been carried out by a wild animal, it was alleged.
Jurors heard grandfather Mr Wrighton’s throat was ripped open and his head “almost severed from his body” as he was stabbed 31 times, including in the eye.
Palmer is alleged to have developed a desire to kill strangers – with dog walkers “a particular bugbear” – after suffering mental health problems following an assault while he was in the Army.
Brambles
He was said to have heard voices in his head, including one from “Little Alex”, which urged him to hurt or kill people, and to have made a “recce” of the attack area two weeks earlier.
Retired BT engineer Mr Wrighton was killed on August 5 last year, on what Nottingham Crown Court heard had begun as an “ordinary day” at his home in Banham, Norfolk.
He had got up at 7.30am and fed his two dogs before taking a cup of tea to Anne, his wife of 53 years.
He put the dogs – Gemma, a 13-yearold mongrel and Dylan, a nine-year-old scarteen harrier – into his car and drove to an area of woodland known as the Heath, stopping on the way to buy rolls and cakes as a treat for his wife.
Once at the Heath, close to the village of East Harling, he and the dogs set off on their walk.
Stephen Spence, prosecuting, told the court: “Not having gone a very great distance he was attacked out of the blue and murdered.
“The murderer took him by surprise, probably from behind and using a knife cut repeatedly at his throat, inflicting injuries so severe that his head was almost severed from his body.
“Peter Wrighton was also stabbed repeatedly to the back of his neck and head and through the left eye.
“There were other injuries suggesting Mr Wrighton might have tried to defend himself. The killer then dragged Mr Wrighton’s body a short distance from the path, placing it partly under nearby brambles.”
A married couple came across the body at 10.45am and called the police.
A post-mortem showed the dead man suffered nine stab wounds to the neck, inflicted with “significant force”, and 22 other wounds to his body.
The court heard that detectives struggling to identify a suspect were contacted by a psychologist who had treated Palmer at a military base to say he could be “worth speaking to”.
It was alleged he had made a series of disturbing comments to medical professionals, including claiming he heard voices urging him to kill.
Mr Spence said: “He appears to have some ill-feeling or a grudge towards dog walkers. There were a number of references to attacks to the throat.”
Police discovered Palmer, who was previously unknown to them, had been in the area after cameras picked up his personalised number plate L666 AHP.
He claimed he had only gone there because he was feeling low and it was a place that held happy memories.
Palmer, of Bawdeswell, Norfolk, denies murder. The trial continues.