'Psychopath' guilty of OAP's murder (From Bournemouth Echo)

'Psychopath' guilty of OAP's murder

3:50pm Wednesday 4th July 2012 in National News © Press Association 2013

A self-confessed "psychopath" has been found guilty of bludgeoning a pensioner to death with a hammer.

Graeme Jarman struck Judith Richardson, 77, at least 30 times after forcing his way into her flat in Hexham, Northumberland.

Jarman, who consistently denied murder during his trial at Newcastle Crown Court, fled the scene with Miss Richardson's handbag, sparking a major manhunt before he was arrested in Filey, North Yorkshire, a fortnight later.

He was convicted by an 11-1 majority by the jury, which began its deliberations on Tuesday.

Jarman, 48, tricked the spinster into opening her front door by showing her Age UK charity leaflets and immediately began battering her.

Her ground-floor flat was ransacked and her jewellery stolen as she lay dying in her hallway. She was brutally beaten for a second time as the killer left.

During the trial, which lasted almost three weeks, Robert Smith QC, prosecuting, said the horrific attack was not random and that Jarman had been following potential victims the day before.

What the jury did not know is that Jarman had already been convicted of locking a teenage girl in his car boot and raping her at gunpoint.

During the seven-hour ordeal he told her: "I am your everyday psychopath."

The court was shown CCTV of Jarman in Hexham the day before the pensioner's death last August, which showed him talking to elderly residents. Mr Smith said Jarman was "observing potential victims".