Murder accused: ‘I was attacked’
DEFENDANT TELLS JURY HE SAW BOY KNIFE VICTIM
MURDER accused Paul Robson told jurors he was attacked from behind until he passed out while arguing with his ex-partner – who he then found lying fatally injured on the floor.
Robson had been in a clandestine sexual relationship with Caroline Kayll while he was a serving prisoner and she was a prison officer then teacher in the same jail.
They had remained together after his release but in the weeks before her death last November, they split after he found out she was in a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy, he told jurors.
Prosecutors say Robson murdered 47-year-old Caroline and repeatedly stabbed the boy after turning up at her home in Linton, Northumberland, on the evening of Sunday, November 15, last year.
Robson, 50, a former cage fighter who has 92 criminal convictions, denies murdering and blackmailing Caroline and attempting to murder the youth. He said they first began a secret relationship at HMP Northumberland back in 2005 and claimed Caroline, who was married to the security manager at the jail, told him she had feelings for him.
Robson said that after he was jailed again in 2014 – for firearms and drugs offences – he and Caroline resumed a sexual relationship.
After he was released at the end of 2018, they continued their relationship and Caroline left her husband, he said.
Robson said he went to do some work in Leeds in October last year and took an old phone of Caroline’s with him, which he’d begun using when his own phone’s screen broke.
He said when he turned it on, Facebook messages for Caroline started coming through. Robson told Newcastle Crown Court: “That’s when I became aware of the relationship between Caroline and (the youth). I was heartbroken, I felt betrayed.”
Asked why he decided to travel from Glasgow, where he was staying and working, to Caroline’s home on the evening of November 15, he said he just wanted to retrieve some tools he had left there in his van.
Robson said that after a discussion about his tools and money he said she owed him, they argued.
He added: “The next thing I knew I had been hit on the back of the head or hit from behind. I fell forward. I remember falling on the ground and I could feel something round my neck.
“I felt up and grabbed at what it was. At first I thought it was a cloth or something like that but it was a gloved hands. I’m trying to fight to keep awake but I can’t.”
Robson said he came round to see the silhouette of a figure, who he later realised was the youth, standing over Caroline and the youth ran away. He said he chased him upstairs where he was then attacked with a bread knife.
Robson said he ended up “diving” on the youth, who had dropped the knife but was trying to push scissors into his face. Robson said he bit him on his arm and he let go of the scissors.
Robson said he then stabbed the youth in the back with the scissors. He then put the scissors down and picked up the knife.
After “dragging” the youth downstairs, Robson said he went to check on Caroline, who was lying on the floor. He told the jury: “I knelt down and her f ****** hair’s all over my hands. I couldn’t tell what was wrong with her. She had blood in her mouth.”
Robson said he got a garden hose and used it to try to wash away blood and hair from her face.
Robson said he went to the garage then outside when he saw the youth getting something out of a drawer, which he thought was a knife.
He said he looked back inside the house and claimed he could see the youth trying to drag Caroline into the living room. Robson said: “He had a meat cleaver in his hand and he hit her with it.
“It was the lower part of her bum cheeks. Then that was it, I went in and just attacked him.”
Robson, of Stanley Street, Howdon, Wallsend, who denies murder, attempted murder and blackmail, will continue to give evidence today.
The trial continues.