The God-hating killer: Drifter accused of murdering vicar and widow had left note threatening 'Christian scum'
By LUKE SALKELD
PUBLISHED: 12:21 GMT, 4 October 2012 | UPDATED: 00:05 GMT, 5 October 2012
Accused: Stephen Farrow, 48, is on trial for murdering a vicar and a retired teacher
A killer scattered gay DVDs, a Bible and party popper streamers over the body of a murdered vicar, a court heard yesterday.
Stephen Farrow, 48, then stayed at the vicarage for several hours watching an Indiana Jones DVD and drinking beer.
The stabbed body of Reverend John Suddards, 59, was later discovered by workmen next to a carefully propped-up painting of Jesus.
A Bible was left on the dead man’s chest, opened at the Letter of Jude.
The killer had also arranged condoms, silver rings, a parking ticket and half eaten food around the crime scene in Thornbury, Gloucestershire.
Four days later, the court heard, Farrow, who admits killing the vicar, sent a text from the clergyman’s mobile phone which read: ‘RIP Mr Suddards. Pervert.’
Bristol Crown Court was told that DNA evidence links Farrow to the murders of Mr Suddards and retired teacher Betty Yates, 77, as well as the burglary of a property in which a note was found threatening to kill ‘Christian scum’.
Opening the case, prosecutor Michael Fitton QC, told the jury the three offences spanned a period of eight weeks, from December 21 to February 15.
Farrow has admitted breaking into another country house in Thornbury weeks before he killed the vicar.
He left a note to the owners pinned to their kitchen table with two knives.
In bright pink pen, it read: ‘Be thankful you did not come back or we would have killed you Christian scum. I ****ing hate God.’
Farrow is accused of murdering Mrs Yates at her detached riverside home in Bewdley, Worcestershire, in the days after the burglary.
He is alleged to have hit the grandmother on the back of the head with her own walking stick before stabbing her four times in the face and neck.
She suffered a three-inch knife wound to the neck – hitting the jugular vein – from which the blade was later found protruding.
Her body was found in a pool of blood at the bottom of her stairs.
Mr Fitton said: ‘There are no injuries to suggest she had any opportunity to defend herself.
‘She may have been struck from behind without any opportunity to defend herself from her attacker.’
He continued: ‘She has not been killed by the beating in a straight line to the back of the head.
‘The weapon with which she appears to have been felled appears to be one of her own walking sticks.
‘There were in total four stab wounds to the neck and head. The most significant was to the left side of the neck.
‘It cut through the left jugular vein and was measured to be seven and a half centimetres.’
The walking stick used to beat her over the head – which had splintered because of the level of force used – had been placed upside down in her walking stick holder, it was said.
The court heard that Farrow, who was allegedly spotted walking along the riverbank by two women on January 2, knew the area well from fishing on the Severn.
The jury heard that Farrow was linked to the scene of Mrs Yates’s murder by DNA on her hand and a boot print that was left on an exercise mat.
The same boot marks linked Farrow to the break-in in Thornbury where the scrawled note was left referring to ‘Christian scum’.
Mr Fitton said the message offered ‘a disturbing insight into the mind of whoever wrote it’.
He added that Farrow travelled around much of the country, staying in ‘all sorts of accommodation’ and occasionally slept rough.
Six weeks after Mrs Yates’s murder, the drifter returned to Thornbury and went on to kill Mr Suddards, the court heard.
After inflicting multiple stab wounds to the vicar’s face, neck and chest, Farrow carefully arranged a ‘scene’ around the vicar’s body with objects he found by ransacking his home, it was said.
‘Over the legs of the deceased was arranged a calendar and over the body were streamers discharged from party poppers,’ said Mr Fitton. ‘In order to find all these items and distribute them over the body the defendant has trawled through the house.
‘It is obviously what the effect is – to spoil and harm the reputation and memories of those who loved and knew the Reverend John Suddards.’
Mr Suddards’s body was discovered on the morning of February 14 after workmen arrived at the vicarage. Farrow, who is of no fixed abode, was arrested in Folkestone, Kent, after a nationwide appeal.
He admits the manslaughter of Mr Suddards on the grounds of diminished responsibility but denies murder. He also denies the murder of Mrs Yates, but admits breaking into the house where the note was found. The trial continues.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2212800/The-God-hating-killer-Drifter-accused-murdering-vicar-widow-left-note-threatening-Christian-scum.html
Psychopathic drifter who threatened to kill 'Christian scum' before murdering vicar and retired teacher will die in prison
By LUKE SALKELD
PUBLISHED: 13:06 GMT, 2 November 2012 | UPDATED: 14:31 GMT, 5 November 2012
A psychopathic drifter who murdered a vicar and a retired teacher in their homes was jailed for life yesterday.
God-hating Stephen Farrow, 48, killed widow Betty Yates, 77, in her secluded riverside cottage and then six weeks later murdered the Reverend John Suddards at his vicarage.
Two days before killing Mrs Yates he sent a text message to a friend which said ‘the church will be the first to suffer’.
He had previously travelled to Canterbury with the intention of killing the Archbishop Rowan Williams, but was put off by the level of security.
Yesterday sadistic Farrow, who claimed to be insane and had a long history of violence, was told he would never be released from prison.
Mrs Yates, who lived alone but had an active social life, was struck so hard on the head with a walking stick by the murderer that the wood splintered.
Farrow, a heavy cannabis user, then stabbed her ‘for pleasure’ and left the knife sticking out from a wound in her neck.
Six weeks later he went to the vicarage of Mr Suddards, 59, whom he stabbed seven times.
When the fatally injured vicar said he was going to die, Farrow replied: ‘****ing die then, hurry up and die.’
Creepy: Farrow burgled Vine Cottage, Thornbury, South Gloucestershire. A note was left pinned to the kitchen table, using two kitchen knives, which read: 'Be thankful you didn't come back or we will have killed you, Christian scum. I f****** hate God'
[...]
Farrow, who is 6ft 4in and claimed £270 a week in state benefits, admitted the burglary and the manslaughter of the Mr Suddards on the grounds of diminished responsibility but denied murdering Mrs Yates.
But yesterday, after a four-week trial, a jury convicted him of the double murders, and he was sentenced to a whole life tariff in prison.
After almost nine hours of deliberation the jury agreed unanimously on the murder verdict for Mr Suddards. Mr Justice Field accepted a majority verdict of 11-1 for the murder of Betty Yates and told Farrow: ‘In each of these dreadful killings you acted sadistically.’
He continued: ‘To put a knife deep into the body of Betty Yates as she lay helpless on the floor was an act of obvious sadism.
‘She was not threatening you. You put the knife into her to have the pleasure of doing so.’
The judge went on: ‘As for Reverend Suddards, you killed him – having kicked him down, having told him to “****ing hurry up and die” – with seven deep knife wounds.
‘He was helpless. That conduct was clearly sadistic.’
[...]
He was assessed by mental health teams who found him to be a pathological liar, with a ‘grandiose sense of self-worth’, who was arrogant, opinionated, and deemed ‘dangerous’ and ‘very dark’.
The prosecution and defence in Farrow’s trial agreed he had a psychopathic personality disorder.
His defence argued that this ‘substantially affected’ his ability to exercise self-control but psychiatrists who gave evidence said being a psychopath would not affect his ability to understand his conduct.
Prosecutor Michael Fitton QC told the court: ‘He is not insane. He knows the difference between right and wrong.
‘He did what he did as a matter of choice.’
Farrow, who had previously threatened to kill an elderly woman and admitted to fantasies about raping girls and bestiality, did not react visibly to his convictions or sentence at Bristol Crown Court.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2226858/Stephen-Farrow-Drifter-threatened-kill-Christian-scum-guilty-murdering-vicar-retired-teacher.html
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