Man accused of brutally killing grandfather to ‘impress women’

By Ed Chatterton and Kate Cronin

A grandpa was bludgeoned to death in bed by a man who befriended him in order to steal his money so he could “impress women,” a court heard.

John Mills, 46, is accused of leaving John Gerard Boyle, 71, with a “shattered and crushed” skull after “brutally” beating him with a baseball bat or a hammer.

Police were called to the grandfather-of-15’s apartment at Leatherland Court, in Kettering, Northamptonshire, at around 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 26 last year.

Officers forced their way into the property where they found Boyle, a father of six, with catastrophic injuries and he sadly could not be saved.

Jurors were told Mills then stole Boyle’s car before traveling to three seaside resorts and spending £3,500 ($4,695) using his bank card.

Mills was “desperate” to impress two women by pretending to have “money to spend”, Northampton Crown Court was told.

It’s alleged this is why Mills befriended “vulnerable” Boyle and stole from him.

Opening the case, prosecutor Andrew Vout KC told the jury of eight men and four women that, on the evening of the death, Mills was standing in Boyle’s bedroom.

Vout said: “John Boyle was, in all likelihood, asleep.

“He was in a place where he should have been safe, his bedroom.

“But very sadly, John Boyle was not safe. Because the man standing in his bedroom, John Mills, was in possession of a weapon.”

Vout told the jury that the weapon is believed to have been “something like” a baseball bat or a hammer.

He said Mills launched a “brutal, cowardly attack” on his victim striking Boyle to the head “more than once” with a blunt weapon.

The court was told that his head injuries were “unsurvivable” and that he would have died very quickly.

Vout said that blood pattern analysis showed it was unlikely Boyle had the time to even sit up during the attack, “or to move an arm to try and protect himself from the blows that rained down on his head.”

Vout told the jury: “He died quickly and brutally.

“We say the evidence will make you sure of that.”

The court heard Mills says he is not guilty, and that they have “got the wrong person”. He claims someone else is responsible for Boyle’s death.

More from this section

Why do people get bored in museums? Study may have answer

Memorial fireworks for four kids canceled over safety concerns

Nest of rarest ant species stolen from nature reserve

Mills denies murder, the theft of Boyle’s car, and a separate burglary at the house of an elderly woman in Kettering, Northamptonshire.

The jury was told Mills conspired with his girlfriend Jordan White to steal cash from Boyle between Oct. 24 and Nov. 9 last year.

Mills was “keen to impress” women, including White and another woman called Kim, it was claimed.

Vout said: “He tried to impress women by suggesting to then he had money to spend.

“This wasn’t true. He didn’t have money at all.

“His efforts to get money are what we say led to him killing John Boyle.”

Vout said that the victim made candles in his spare time and that he had taken to leaving the window of his ground-floor apartment open to avoid setting off the fire alarm.

The day before he died, the court heard Jordan White was twice seen leaving Boyle’s apartment, before withdrawing cash using his bank card, before returning a few minutes later.

Boyle spent the afternoon of Oct. 26 with his family, having Sunday lunch. He returned home in his car at 6:20 p.m., and that was the last time he was seen alive.

The prosecutor said that Mills’ fingerprints were found on the outside and inside of a window at the apartment and his DNA was found on a cap on Boyle’s bed.

At 6:44 a.m. on Oct. 27, Mills was seen behind the wheel of Boyle’s car.

He drove around ATMs in Kettering, withdrawing money from Boyle’s account, before getting a cab to a shopping center where he bought himself outfits.

A taxi driver who collected him suggested in a witness statement he had a “gangster attitude”.

In the following days, Mills and White visited Skegness, Great Yarmouth and Clacton-on-Sea spending a “significant amount of cash”.

Vout said that last of the £3,500 ($4,695) in Boyle’s account was “frittered away” on Clacton Pier on Nov. 3.

He added: “Mills and White had spent the money in John Boyle’s bank account in just a week.”

Mills admits taking the car without authority but denies theft. He told police he had bought the car he had been using.

He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal from Boyle; and fraud involving the use of a bank card belonging to the elderly female victim.

White, of Kettering, previously admitted conspiracy to steal from Boyle between Oct. 24 and Nov. 9. She is not on trial for murder.

The trial continues.