Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ULSTER KILL ACCUSED’S MURDER CONVICTION
Court is told woman, 86, was beaten to death with hammer
THE killing of a Northern Ireland pensioner was revealed in court yesterday as a prosecutor tried to establish the “bad character” of a man on trial for murder.
Jurors were told how William Mcfall was convicted in the mid1990s of the murder of 86-year-old Martha Gilmore at her home in Greenisland, Co Antrim.
Mcfall is on trial at Newcastle Crown Court, along with Stephen Unwin, for the murder of Quyen Ngoc Nguyen last August.
The court was told yesterday how the two maintenance men, accused of torturing, raping and dumping a Vietnamese woman’s body in a burning car, have previous convictions for murder.
Unwin and Mcfall deny murdering Ms Nguyen, 28, in a depraved crime the court was told was motivated by lust and greed.
The jury has heard she was lured to Unwin’s home in St Oswald’s Terrace, Houghton-le-spring and subjected to a terrifying four-hour ordeal before she was dumped in her burning Audi A4 by some allotments.
Jamie Hill QC, prosecuting, said both defendants were previously convicted of murdering pensioners in burglaries in the 1990s, and both were sentenced to life, but had been released on licence.
He said Mcfall, 51 from Greenisland, murdered Mrs Gilmore with a hammer during a break-in in May 1996.
The jury was told she had mobility problems and disturbed the burglar so he knocked her to the ground before hitting her with the weapon.
Mr Hill said Mcfall later told a probation officer he killed Mrs Gilmore “due to alcohol, stress and panic when he became aware of her presence”.
He admitted murder, was jailed for life in April 1997 at Belfast Crown Court and released on licence in October 2010.
Mcfall had previous convictions for violence and firearms offences.
The jury was also told Unwin, 42, had a history of setting fires at the scenes of his crimes.
In 1999, he admitted murdering a 73-year-old man in Houghton-lespring on Christmas Day by attacking him in bed with a camera and then stabbing him.
Unwin stole his TV and video recorder and then started three fires in the property, so his victim had to be identified by his dental records.
Mr Hill said in 1991 Unwin set ablaze a HGV he had broken into, and in 1995 he started five blazes in the property of another elderly burglary victim who was rescued by neighbours.
Unwin was jailed for life for murder at Newcastle Crown Court in October 1999, and was released on licence in December 2012.
The jury has heard how the pair forced Ms Nguyen to give them her PINS and they took two bank cards and withdrew a total of £1,000 before and after she was killed.
The court has heard the victim was less than 5ft and weighed just seven stone, and had come to the country in 2010 from Vietnam.
She helped her sister run a nail salon in Gateshead, but there was also a secret element of her life.
Miss Nguyen was also allegedly involved in renting out properties for people without the correct immigration documents for being in the UK.
Some addresses were used to cultivate cannabis.
Mcfall, who had lately been living in Blackpool, Lancashire, was staying regularly with Unwin and worked alongside him maintaining properties for landlords.
NEWCASTLE CROWN COURT YESTERDAY