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A woman whose mum was murdered by a man wanted on recall to prison has called for an overhaul of the probation system, saying ‘there’s too much at stake and our communities need protecting’.
Anita Rose, 57, had been out on a morning dog walk in Brantham, Suffolk when she was set upon by 56-year-old Roy Barclay in what prosecutors called a ‘vicious and brutal attack’.
Barclay, who had been convicted and jailed 10 years earlier over a near-identical attack on a pensioner, had been wanted on recall at the time over a breach of his licence conditions.
Ms Rose’s eldest daughter, who gave her name as Jess, fought back tears as she said outside Ipswich Crown Court that Barclay had ‘shown no remorse’.
‘We will now look towards changes that need to be made within the probation services and the justice system,’ said Jess.
‘We need to make sure that our communities are safe and that people are monitored, that criminals are taken back to prison when they break the terms of their probation.
‘Criminals cannot remain at large. There’s too much at stake and our communities need protecting.’
Barclay had denied murdering Ms Rose but was found guilty after around two-and-a-half hours of deliberation on Wednesday.
Wearing a grey jumper, glasses and sporting a white beard and thinning hair, Barclay showed no emotion as he sat in the secure dock of the court.
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The judge, Martyn Levett, said: ‘The sentence is one that inevitably is going to be life in prison, and the length of it is going to be very lengthy.’
Christopher Paxton KC, prosecuting, earlier told the court that mother-of-six Ms Rose left her home in Brantham, Suffolk to walk her dog Bruce, a springer spaniel, on the morning of July 24 last year.
She encountered Barclay on her route, who was described as ‘irrational and dangerous’.
Giving his closing speech, Mr Paxton said: ‘Two very different worlds collided: Anita, partner to Richard, a mother and grandmother, out with the family dog Bruce, before she went off to work.
‘Her world collided with Roy Barclay’s world, a desperate man on the run from police for two years, having been in prison for beating Leslie Gunfield’s face to a pulp.
‘Roy Barclay took Anita Rose’s life in an explosion of violence.’
Jurors heard Barclay kept a ‘treasure trove’ of Ms Rose’s items including her jacket and phone.
Mr Paxton said Barclay’s walking boots, which ‘amounted to the murder weapon’, were found in one of the defendant’s camps.
Anita Rose’s daughter Jess said her mother was a ‘strong, brave, vibrant woman’.
‘She enjoyed living in Brantham and would walk in Brantham every single day,’ she said.
‘She felt safe in Brantham. She should have been able to continue to walk Bruce (her dog) safely every day in the wonderful countryside of Brantham.’
Detective Superintendent Mike Brown said outside court that the murder was a ‘brutal attack on a lone woman in an isolated rural area on the outskirts of a peaceful village’.
‘We may never fully understand the motive behind it and our thoughts remain firmly with Anita’s family at the conclusion of this trial,’ he said.
Assistant Chief Constable Alice Scott said that a ‘voluntary partnership review’ would be conducted under the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements process involving the police and the probation service.
‘It will look closely at the information sharing processes and how the organisations collaborated in terms of Barclay who was wanted on recall to prison when he murdered Anita,’ she said.
‘This review will be a thorough assessment and scrutiny of the processes concerning Barclay.
‘It will be expedited as soon as possible so we can provide clear and definitive answers for Anita’s family.’
Barclay will be sentenced on August 6.
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