Random text ‘ led to hammer murder’

A WOMAN’S father was murdered by a man she began a relationship with after he sent her a random text message, a court heard yesterday.

Matthew Castle tapped in a greeting and sent it to a chance number. It went to Joanne Gula’s telephone, she responded and within weeks the pair had begun an affair.

Castle allegedly took a dislike to Mrs Gula’s father, Derek Hartley, and beat him to death with a sledgehammer.

Castle, 32, then sent another text message to Mrs Gula reading: “Well, Jo, I said you had it coming.”

Yesterday Mrs Gula told Nottingham Crown Court that Castle fi rst contacted her in June last year, when her marriage to her husband, Ivan, was at a “low ebb”. She said she was curious about who had sent the text and a few messages were exchanged.

Mrs Gula, now 34, who has a masters degree in crop protection, said she agreed to meet Castle in a pub about a fortnight later and they soon began an affair. Mrs Gula told her husband and left him.

Peter Kelson QC, prosecuting, said the relationship hit problems when she started visiting her husband with their children and Castle became jealous. They split up in October but agreed to give the relationship another go.

She had planned to meet in a park on the morning of Nov 4 but Castle, a self-employed plasterer, failed to turn up. She returned to her parents’ home in Newthorpe, Notts, and found her father unconscious and covered in blood.

Mr Hartley, 63, a bus driver who was just days from retirement, died from head injuries 10 days later.

The court heard that on the day of the attack Castle allegedly sent Mrs Gula a message that read: “Well, Jo, I said you had it coming. Ivan is next.”

It was alleged that he had also been caught on CCTV as he bought a sledge-hammer handle only a day before Mr Hartley was beaten to death.

The court was told Castle, of Thurmaston, Leics, had slept with at least three other women while involved in the relationship with Mrs Gula.

Castle denies murder. The trial continues.