‘Wicked’ cooking pan murderer, 71, gets life
Alcoholic OAP battered woman in her own home
A PENSIONER who murdered a 60-year-old woman after subjecting her to a ‘wicked’ attack in her home has been jailed for life.
Michael Taylor, 71, was on bail for three offences when he grabbed Elizabeth Muir before repeatedly punching his defenceless victim in the head.
She lost consciousness before Taylor repeatedly struck her on the head with what prosecutors suspect was a kitchen pot or pan.
He removed his victim’s clothing and sexually molested her.
Taylor, a prisoner at HMP Inverness, was caught after police found his fingerprints and DNA at the scene in Inverness.
The widower denied murder but was convicted at the High Court in Edinburgh in May.
Taylor returned for sentencing yesterday, and trial judge Michael O’Grady, QC, told him: ‘Murder is never other than appalling. But the sheer callous brutality of the death you inflicted on this defenceless woman, and the terror she must have felt in her final minutes, is quite beyond comprehension.’
Prosecutors have never discovered what drove Taylor to kill Mrs Muir at her house in Kintail Court, Inverness, last March.
The judge said: ‘We will never know what led you to do what you did. But it hardly matters.
‘What you did was utterly wicked and that wickedness must be at the forefront of my mind when imposing sentence.’
He said that he took account of other factors, principally the killer’s age, but added: ‘Whatever else I take into account, I cannot fail to reflect in sentence the awful nature of the killing of Mrs Muir.’ Judge O’Grady told Taylor that for the rest of his life he will either be in prison or under licence.
He made his remarks over a series of outbursts by Taylor in the dock.
Defence counsel Shelagh McCall QC said there had been a deterioration in alcoholic Taylor’s condition since his trial, telling the court: ‘I am not able to get him to be quiet, so I apologise for that.’
Yesterday, Detective Chief Inspector Keith Hardie, who led the inquiry, welcomed the sentence and said: ‘Although it will never change what happened, I hope this outcome gives her family and friends some comfort in knowing that he will be behind bars for many years to come.’