Selfie of a killer af ter he stabbed rare book dealer to death
Harry Potter collector was knifed 33 times
HIS face smeared in blood, a killer poses for a chilling selfie moments after stabbing a book collector to death.
Michael Danaher, 50, calmly took the picture as victim Adrian greenwood lay bleeding in the hallway of his Oxford home.
The photograph was released yesterday as the 25-stone loner was jailed for life for murder. Danaher, who had drawn up a hit-list of rich and famous people to rob including Kate Moss and Jeffrey Archer, had targeted Mr greenwood over a rare copy of The Wind In The Willows being sold on eBay.
The collector was also known to have a number of Harry Potter first editions.
Posing as a potential customer, the Danaher stabbed his victim 33 times in a frenzied attack when he refused to hand over the £50,000 children’s classic by Kenneth grahame.
Over two hours he shattered the victim’s arm and tortured him for information on where the valuable first edition was hidden. Mr greenwood was then left to bleed to death in the hallway of his £650,000 house as his killer ransacked the property and stole the book.
But before fleeing the scene on April 6 he took time to capture a leering selfie of his bloodied face.
Danaher, from Peterborough, showed no emotion yesterday as he was ordered to serve a minimum of 34 years in jail.
A jury at Oxford Crown Court refused to believe claims he acted in self-defence when Mr greenwood attacked him with a knife and found him guilty of murder.
Judge Ian Pringle QC told the killer: ‘You inflicted upon Adrian greenwood torture by way of the stab wounds... that he had on him. You left him bleeding to death on the floor of his own hallway and you even took a photograph of yourself when you left that house.’
Mr greenwood’s body was found by his cleaner on April 7 with knife wounds to his neck, chest and back. Danaher was arrested three days later.
The court heard how the killer, who was heavily in debt, had drawn up a spreadsheet of high-profile targets for theft, robbery and ransom demands.
After killing Mr greenwood, 42, he deleted his name from the list and posted the 1908 edition of The Wind In The Willows on eBay at a knock-off price.
The 12 other names on his hitlist, which was titled ‘Enterprises’, included Kate Moss, Channel 4’s pawnbroker Dan Hatfield and Jeffrey Archer, who he planned to ‘pursue one way or another’.
He set down why each person should be a target, what he expected to steal, and how he would carry out the crime, including ‘crate delivery’ and ‘stun’ – referring to a stun gun he had bought. For Mr greenwood, he gave the reason as ‘tosser’, while his expected take was ‘rare books’.
The judge described how two weeks before the murder, Danaher had attempted to carry out a raid at the home of wealthy investor Adrian Beecroft.
He arrived at the property in Hampstead, North London, posing as a delivery driver and tried to force his way in past Mr Beecroft’s wife Jacqueline. But he was forced to flee when she shouted to her staff to call the police.
Former John Lewis worker Danaher later tried to lay the blame for the attempted raid in March and the list on his computer on a ‘mystery man’ who he would not identify after claiming he had been threatened.
Danaher was also given seven years in prison, to run concurrently with the life term, for possessing a stun gun which was concealed as an iPhone. Detective Superintendent Mark Brown, of Thames Valley Police, said after the case that Danaher had shown his ‘arrogance’ by taking a selfie at the scene.
‘Left him bleeding to death’