Former prison warder ‘ killed by her jail lover after affair with boy of 15’
a FORMER prison officer was battered to death by a cage fighter she had an affair with in jail, a court heard.
Paul Robson, 50, allegedly kicked and stamped on Caroline Kayll, leaving the 47-year- old with multiple head fractures and unsurvivable brain damage.
Robson had discovered that Mrs Kayll, whom he had split up with weeks earlier, had begun a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy, Newcastle Crown Court was told.
He also tried to murder the boy at Mrs Kayll’s home with scissors, a kitchen knife and a meat cleaver, the jury heard.
Robson, a martial arts enthusiast and cage-fighting coach, is said to have calmly told a neighbour he had ‘done something to Caroline’ who was in a ‘bad way’, before driving off from the scene.
The court heard that Robson began a clandestine relationship with Mrs Kayll when he was serving a jail sentence at HMP Northumberland and she worked there as a prison education officer.
Prosecutor Nicholas Lumley QC said she was married to prison manager Ian Kayll, who also worked at the jail, but they split in 2018 without him finding out about her behind-bars affair. When Robson had served his sentence he resumed his relationship with Mrs Kayll, moving in with her in august 2019. But in September last year she was ‘devastated’ when he dumped her, the court was told.
Meanwhile, Mrs Kayll had formed a ‘close bond’ with the 15-year-old and at some stage they started an illegal sexual relationship, said Mr Lumley.
Robson found out and within weeks of their split he allegedly began blackmailing her.
In the days before the murder Mrs Kayll transferred £29,000 to Robson – using savings and a £10,500 loan, the jury heard.
On November 11 last year, he drove to her home in Linton, Northumberland, to carry out the attack, said Mr Lumley.
Robson was captured on a neighbour’s CCTV ‘prowling and snooping’ around Mrs Kayll’s house. He got inside and over the next 20 minutes ‘viciously’ battered her before going upstairs to attack the teenager, the court heard.
Mrs Kayll was heard by neighbours shouting ‘get out’ before being overpowered. She suffered more than 50 injuries over her body. Robson even cut her long blonde hair off as she lay lifeless on the floor, the court heard.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered 45 injuries from repeated stabbings and was squirted in the face with ammonia that Robson had brought with him, the jury was told.
Mr Lumley said ‘vindictive’ Robson accessed Mrs Kayll’s social media and email accounts as she was on life support to send messages to friends, colleagues and her ex-husband revealing her relationship with the boy.
Robson was tracked down and arrested days later. The court heard he claims he was talking to Mrs Kayll when the teen hit him on the head before trying to strangle him. He says the boy then attacked his lover and used scissors and a knife to attack him again.
The teenager told police in a video played in court that he heard ‘banging’ as he sat in the bedroom using his phone and smoking a cigarette. Robson, whom he didn’t know, came in with scissors and pinned him down on the bed.
‘I was face down on the bed, he was holding me down with one hand and stabbing me with the other,’ he said. ‘I’m trying to get him off.
‘He gets up and said “wait there, don’t move or I will kill you” and he comes back with a bigger blade.’
The boy said Robson attacked him again using a 7in kitchen knife then ordered him downstairs where he struck him twice on the head with a meat cleaver. ‘I’m going dizzy...and lean against the wall,’ he recalled.
Robson then allegedly squirted ammonia on both victims before going to fetch next door neighbour Barbara Lee.
Mrs Lee said she told Robson to leave before calling 999 and starting to give Mrs Kayll CPR.
Robson took both victims’ mobile phones and left in a van.
The next day he used Mrs Kayll’s card to take £500 cash from her account and sent £4,000 from his own account to four people to ‘keep’ for him, the jury heard.
after his arrest he gave a prepared statement to police and said: ‘I never intended to kill anyone. I cannot believe Caroline is dead. The whole thing is like a nightmare.’
Robson, of Wallsend, North Tyneside, denies murder, attempted murder and blackmail.
The trial continues.
‘Don’t move or I’ll kill you’