Grandson guilty of pensioner’s murder
A COCAINE user has been convicted of murdering his grandmother in a brutal knife attack after building up a £35,000 gambling debt.
Gregory Irvin cut the throat of Anne James and stabbed her 30 times in the chest and back after assaulting the pensioner from behind at her home in Walsall, West Midlands.
He denied murdering his 74-year-old victim on February 28, a week after her husband was admitted to hospital with pneumonia. Birmingham Crown Court had heard how Mrs James trusted Irvin implicitly and always welcomed him into her home of almost 40 years in Doveridge Place, Highgate.
She had been making soup and unpacking after a shopping trip before Irvin launched his brutal attack.
He removed a security camera and his grandmother’s mobile phone from the house. Irvin told a police officer the following day he had not seen her on the day she died.
Blood matching that of Mrs James was found on the 26-yearold’s jacket and on the accelerator of his Mini after she was found dead on her pantry floor.
Giving evidence during his trial, Irvin told the jury he had been hearing “devilish” voices and had difficulty sleeping. Adjourning sentence, Mrs Justice Jefford told Irvin: “You have been found guilty by this jury of murder and you will be taken down.” Detective Inspector Harry Harrison, from West Midlands Police’s homicide team, said: “This was a despicable crime by a compulsive liar.”
Irvin, of Bilboe Road, Bilston, West Midlands, will be sentenced on October 29.