Cage fighter who battered ex to death should have been in jail
Jealous fugitive was a wanted man – now he faces a life term
A CAGE fighter who murdered his ex-prison officer lover after blackmailing her over her relationship with a boy of 15 should have been in jail at the time.
Paul Robson, 50, had been wanted for recall to prison for 20 months.
But no one appeared to be looking for him and he was free to kill divorcee Caroline Kayll, 47, and attempt to murder the teenager in a jealous rage.
Robson was yesterday facing life behind bars after being found guilty of the savage murder at her home.
The hardened criminal had a secret 15-year affair with Mrs Kayll which began in jail. They resumed it when he ended his sentence in November 2018, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
Four months later Robson was recalled to prison for breaching his prison licence and was a wanted man until he murdered her in November last year. ‘No one seemed to be looking for me so I was able to stay out of prison,’ he told the court.
His trial heard how Mrs Kayll was married to the manager of the jail and met Robson for clandestine weekends behind her husband’s back before they split. The affair continued after Robson’s release. But they broke up when he dumped her by text in September.
Robson is thought to have had Mrs Kayll’s home in Linton, Northumberland, under surveillance. He discovered she was having regular sex with an underage boy and blackmailed her. In the days before the murder she 45 injuries from repeated stabbings transferred £29,000 to him to stop him revealing her secret – using with scissors, a kitchen knife savings and a £10,500 loan. and a meat cleaver. Robson alerted
Then on a Sunday last November a neighbour and then drove away. he drove down from Glasgow Later, as Mrs Kayll was on life where he was lying low and support, he accessed her social attacked Mrs Kayll and the boy. media and email accounts to send She suffered more than 50 injuries, messages to friends, colleagues including multiple head fractures, and her ex-husband revealing her and was left with unsurvivable relationship with the boy. brain damage consistent with When he was arrested Robson being kicked and stamped on. tried to pin the blame on the teenager, Robson cut her long blonde hair claiming he was attacked by off as she lay lifeless on the floor. the boy, who also killed Mrs Kayll.
The teenager, who cannot be But the jury convicted Robson of named for legal reasons, suffered murder, attempted murder and blackmail after a day’s deliberations. He will be sentenced today and given a mandatory life term.
Robson already had 21 convictions for 92 offences, including violence, burglary, car theft, drug dealing and firearms offences.
He told the court his affair with Mrs Kayll began in 2005 when he was a prisoner at HMP Northumberland and joined a sports course. She was a PE instructor. He said their relationship was ‘sexual’ but did not at that stage involve intercourse. When he found himself back in the same prison in 2014 she arranged for him to work as a cleaner in her department, and they had secret trysts. ‘I liked her, it was wrong because we were in prison and we couldn’t relax, but I liked her,’ he said.
The court heard within weeks of their affair ending Robson was blackmailing Mrs Kayll over her secret sexual relationship with the teenager which he had somehow found out about. The muscular cage fighting coach, who made money from selling cannabis, ultimately flew into a rage with deadly consequences. The boy told police that Robson, whom he didn’t know, attacked Mrs Kayll downstairs then pinned him down on a bed upstairs armed with scissors before attacking him with the knife and meat cleaver.
Outside court, Detective Inspector Graeme Barr said it was one of the most violent offences he had investigated. He said: ‘His attack on Caroline and his teenage victim was pre-meditated and demonstrated horrendous levels of violence. He succeeded in killing his former partner and has left his teenage victim scarred for life.’