Brave pensioner died trying to stop a killer
THE bravery of an elderly widow who was beaten to death when she confronted a wife killer in her street has been revealed to a jury.
Sandy Seagrave tried to stop mechanic Dan Appleton attacking his wife Amy, a court heard.
Sandy, 76 and only 4ft 9in tall, raised her walking stick and yelled: “How dare you!” jurors were told.
Appleton, 37, grabbed the stick and battered her to death before using it to kill
his 32- year- old wife, the court heard. The double killing happened in Crawley Down, West Sussex, in December last year. Neighbour Janet Spragg recalled how she was walking her dog when she spotted Sandy striding towards an aggressive Appleton. Janet told Hove Crown Court: “She wasn’t intimidated. She walked towards him. He took the walking stick, he did it very quickly. I thought, ‘ Why would you do that?’”
Breaking down, Janet said she saw Appleton suddenly hit the pensioner.
She said: “It was a very quick act and with all his force he hit her in the stomach, with force and she just collapsed. The force was so disproportionate and that is when I shouted out, ‘ No!’”
Neighbour Ivonne Greenwell told how she dialled 999 after hearing Appleton scream at his primary school teacher wife: “I could do a murder. I could murder you.”
Ivonne and her young daughter watched as Sandy confronted Appleton, who was just wearing white boxer shorts.
Moments after the killings, Appleton went inside his home and tried to commit suicide by stabbing himself with a large kitchen knife.
The defendant accepts he is responsible for the deaths but denies two counts of murder. Jurors must decide if the breakdown was brought on by the use of LSD- type drugs or by temporary mental illness for which he is “blameless”.
The trial continues.