An on-the-run convict who brutally attacked a grandmother while she was walking her dog now faces life behind bars after being convicted of her murder.
Roy Barclay, 56, was convicted by a jury at Ipswich Crown Court of slaughtering the Anita Rose in Brantham, Suffolk in July last year.
The thug had been living ‘off-grid’ in a desperate attempt to avoid being recalled to prison when he encountered the 57-year-old mother-of-six and her pet.
The court heard Barclay subjected her to ‘numerous kicks, stamps and blows’ in a ‘vicious and brutal’ onslaught while she was out with her spaniel, Bruce.
She was found by passers-by on a footpath beside a sewage works but died four days later.
Barclay, of no fixed abode, had denied murder. But a jury at Ipswich Crown Court took just two-and-half hours to convict him of the Ms Rose’s murder.
Barclay, who wore a grey jumper, glasses and had a white beard and thinning hair, showed no emotion as he sat in the secure dock of the court.
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.’
Anita Rose was found lying unconscious on a remote path with serious head injuries in Brantham, Suffolk, on July 24 last year
Roy Barclay, 56, of no fixed abode, has been convicted of the mother-of-six’s murder
Anita Rose’s eldest daughter, who asked to be referred to as Jess, described her mother as a ‘strong, brave, vibrant woman’.
Speaking outside Ipswich Crown Court, after Roy Barclay was convicted of her mother’s murder, Jess said: ‘She enjoyed living in Brantham and would walk in Brantham every single day.
‘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.
‘We will not forget the wonderful woman she was and the light she brought to everybody’s life.’
Fighting back tears, she added Barclay had shown ‘no remorse’ for the senseless slaughter of her mother.
‘We will now look towards changes that need to be made within the probation services and the justice system,” Jess added in a statement outside the court.
‘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.’
Opening the court case, prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC told jurors Ms Rose was violently attack on July 24 last year.
After she left home and before 6.25 that morning, Anita Rose was subject to a vicious and brutal attack with numerous kicks, stamps and blows being delivered to her face, head and body,’ Mr Paxton told Ipswich Crown Court.
The mother-of-six was out walking her dog Bruce and was found unconscious on a track in Brantham
‘Found by passers-by, help was called for but on July 28 Anita Rose died in Addenbrooke’s Hospital [in Cambridge] from the injuries she received.’
‘No eyewitnesses saw the incident’, Mr Paxton told jurors, adding: ‘You will hear that Roy Barclay had no fixed address and lived mostly in the countryside, wandering the fields and lanes, sleeping in various makeshift camps.
‘He lived off-grid because, for two years, Roy Barclay had been unlawfully at large.
‘He had been on the run trying to avoid the police and authorities to try and avoid being recalled back to prison.’
Jurors were told that Barclay had previously pleaded guilty, over a separate incident in 2015, to grievous bodily harm with intent over an attack on an 82-year-old man in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex.
The pensioner, Leslie Gunfield, had told Barclay that he would inform security about him going through rubbish bins at a Co-op supermarket, the court heard.
Mr Gunfield was left with serious injuries to his head and required 10 titanium plates for fractures he suffered after being attacked by Barclay.
He was found with a dog lead wrapped around his foot, which the prosecution said was similar to the way Ms Rose’s body was found, with a dog lead ‘tightly’ wrapped around her leg.
Mr Paxton earlier told jurors that Mr Gunfield ‘was taken to the ground and attacked on the ground by Roy Barclay, just as Anita Rose was’.
‘Leslie Gunfield was struck repeatedly to the head, just as Anita Rose was,’ the prosecutor continued.
‘In his mid-40s, he (Barclay) fractured nearly all of the bones of an 82-year-old’s face, having taken him to the ground in 2015.
‘Anybody that attacks an 82-year-old man in that way displays a ruthlessness and callousness that defies logic.’
Barclay was released from prison for the attack on Mr Gunfield in February 2020.
Mr Paxton said Barclay was a ‘dog lover’ who had volunteered at a dog charity while on probation, adding that a dog lead wrapped around a body could ‘almost be described as a signature of Roy Barclay’.
The prosecutor described Barclay 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.
Ms Rose was spotted on CCTV walking her dog early in the morning of July 24 before being attacked
Minutes later Barclay is caught on the same CCTV camera walking past the spot Ms Barclay and her pet had been
‘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.
‘Blow after blow, stamp after stamp and kick after kick.
‘Roy Barclay’s determination to keep his liberty and save his skin is revealed in the brutality of the injuries he inflicted on Anita Rose.
‘Slight and slim Roy Barclay might seem, but his force, his brutality, is revealed in what he did to Leslie Gunfield and Anita Rose.’
Barclay did not give evidence at his trial.
Mr Paxton said Barclay had carried out online searches after Ms Rose was attacked which included ‘Can barbed wire be swabbed for DNA?’ and ‘How long does DNA last at a crime scene?’
The prosecutor said Barclay had 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.
Earlier in the case, jurors were told how ‘cunning’ convict Barclay tried to trick police into arresting an innocent man by leaving his victim’s phone in a public place.
The killer swiped Ms Rose’s phone and distinctive pink jacket before then reading media reports on his mobile detailing how both items were ‘key’ to the police investigation, the court heard.
Prosecutor Mr Paxton KC told the jury how the report was ‘a signal to Roy Barclay that he had to get rid of the phone’.
Barclay attempted to dump the phone to ‘set a false trail for the police, throwing them off the scent’, the prosecutor added.
Barclay was arrested by police at Ipswich Library on October 21 last year and charged with murder (he is pictured in police bodycam footage being detained)
The 56-year-old was filmed by a CCTV camera three days after the attack on Ms Rose as he walked towards ‘a small seating area’ in Ipswich town centre with a rucksack on his back and a carrier bag in his left hand, said Mr Paxton.
He was seen crossing the road towards the seating area in Upper Orwell Street and then walking back ‘after a short while’ with images showing he no longer had the bag, Ipswich Crown Court hard.
Several minutes later, a couple named in court as Mr Ichim and Miss Baiculescu entered the same seating area, while CCTV showed Barclay seeming to ‘hang around walking up and down’.
Mr Paxton told the jury: ‘He was looking into the seating area. We say he is checking if someone has picked up Anita’s phone and making sure his phone drop has been successful.’
Mr Ichim and Miss Baiculescu were seen on CCTV emerging from the area a few minutes later and appeared to pass the phone ‘from one to the other’ as they walked away and turned it on.
Mr Paxton said: ‘The police were alerted to Anita’s phone being switched on for the first time since the morning of the attack and, as soon as it was, numerous police officers flooded the area.’
The ‘unsuspecting’ couple were found in the nearby iMobile phone and vape shop where they had paid for it to be factory reset as they were ‘looking to sell it’, he added.
Mr Ichim was arrested on suspicion of the attempted murder of Ms Rose – who died in hospital the following day – and treated as a suspect before being released without charge.
Mr Paxton described the dumping of the phone as an example of ‘Barclay’s cunning and his attempts to distort and throw the police off his track.’
He told the jury: ‘In some ways, it was clever as he must be to have evaded recall to prison for over two years.’
Ms Rose died from her traumatic head injuries in Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, on July 28, four days after the attack.
Barclay was arrested by police at Ipswich Library on October 21 last year and charged with murder.
He is due to be sentenced at a later date.
