Violent thug Roy Barclay developed an obsession with the occult before leaving a pensioner fighting for his life following a brutal attack and later battering a dog walker to death.
The 56-year-old, who was convicted on Wednesday of the murder of mother-of-six Anita Rose, 57, was a follower of the late David Farrant, the President of the British Occult and Psychic Society, the Mail can reveal.
Farrant was best known for helping to spark panic in the 1970s about the sightings of alleged vampires in Highgate cemetery, north London.
Barclay was a keen amateur artist who drew cartoons satirising the rivalry between Farrant and self-proclaimed exorcist Sean Manchester, which once made tabloid headlines.
But he apparently broke off links with Farrant’s supporters at least 20 years ago, leading to rumours that he had ‘disappeared in mysterious circumstances’, according to one blogger.
In fact, he had become a homeless drifter as his mental health deteriorated, living in makeshift camps and in temporary bedsits, while surviving largely on food scavenged from bins.
Barclay was living off grid when he viciously attacked Leslie Gunfield, then 82, who had threatened to inform security about him going through rubbish bins at the back of a Co-op supermarket in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex.
Mr Gunfield was on his way to buy a newspaper just before 7am on February 22, 2015, when he spotted Barclay with an armful of pizzas and made an ‘innocuous’ remark to him, saying: ‘You had a good haul tonight’.
Anita Rose was found lying unconscious on a remote path with serious head injuries in Brantham, Suffolk, on July 24 last year
Her killer Roy Barclay (pictured after his arrest in October 2024) had developed an obsession with the occult, the Mail can now reveal
Barclay was a follower of the late David Farrant, the President of the British Occult and Psychic Society, it can now be disclosed
Barclay’s response was to punch him repeatedly in the face and head, out of sight of CCTV cameras, leaving Mr Gunfield with multiple fractures to his nose, eye sockets and cheeks, and his jaw detached.
The pensioner nearly died in the attack but survived after having ten titanium plates screwed into his skull in operations at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge.
Barclay who was known for his love of dogs, left what the prosecution would suggest was a tell-tale calling card by tying the lead of Mr Gunfield’s terrier around the foot of his victim to ensure the pet would not run away. He would later wrap Ms Rose’s dog’s lead around her leg after the fatal assault.
He denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent against Mr Gunfield but changed his plea to guilty on the day his trial was due to start and he was jailed for ten years at Chelmsford Crown Court in August 2015.
His release from prison on February 24, 2020, was on condition that he stayed in touch with the probation service but he effectively disappeared in 2022 and avoided contact with the police or authorities.
It was his failure to obey the conditions of his licence that meant that he was wanted on recall for prison for two years.
Barclay avoided being reincarcerated by living ‘off grid’ in a variety of camps, including one hidden in deep undergrowth close to a local beauty spot called Decoy Pond in Brantham, Suffolk, and in a clump of trees underneath the Orwell Bridge in nearby Wherstead.
Barclay was a keen amateur artist who drew cartoons satirising the rivalry between Farrant and self-proclaimed exorcist Sean Manchester (pictured is one of his cartoons)
Barclay (pictured during his arrest in October 2024) murdered Ms Rose while living ‘off-grid’ and sought for recall to prison by the authorities
He attacked Ms Rose early in the morning of July 27 last year while she was walking her springer spaniel, Bruce, on an isolated path between the main Ipswich to London railway line and a sewage works around 200 years from Decoy Pond.
Prosecutors suggested that he may have carried out the ‘vicious and brutal’ assault after Ms Rose saw him breaking into the sewage works to use its washroom, and possibly confronted him about what he was doing.
He punched her repeatedly and stamped on her face, before leaving her for dead. But he repeated his incongruously caring gesture of tying her dog’s lead around her leg to stop it running off.
Ipswich Crown Court heard that Barclay loved dogs so much that he carried biscuits around with him so he could feed any that he came across. He had also volunteered for a dog charity on his release from prison.
Ms Rose who lived in Brantham with her lorry driver partner Richard Jones died of her injuries four days after the attack without regaining consciousness in Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
Barclay denied murder, but he was found guilty by a jury today after he refused to give evidence at his trial. He now faces being jailed for life.
The killer’s mother, Rosemary Barclay, was unmarried and living in the seaside town of Walton-on-the-Naze when she gave birth to him. His birth certificate does not name his father.
Little is known of his early life but in 2002 he was registered as living in a bedsit in a run-down semi-detached house in Old Road, Frinton-on-Sea, which borders Walton-on-the-Naze.
Neighbours said they could not recall Barclay living at the address but said it had a high turnover of tenants, with many appearing to be men who might otherwise be homeless. The house is less than a mile from the Co-op where Barclay attacked Mr Gunfield.
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
Barclay had previously developed an association with Farrant, who caused a sensation when he claimed in 1970 to have seen ghost-like figures in gothic Highgate Cemetery, the final resting of Karl Marx, artist Henry Moore and George Michael.
Farrant later began a rivalry with vampire hunter Manchester, who claimed to be a Bishop of the Old Catholic Church, leading to them taking part in so-called ‘occult-duels’ and endless debates on internet forums.
The feud led to Farrant publishing a series of comic books, poking fun at Manchester and labelling him Bishop Bonkers while Manchester produced oil paintings portraying his rival as a demon.
Barclay appears to have sided with Farrant, drawing cartoon pictures of Manchester as a Bishop, accompanied by nonsensical ramblings.
One drawing by Barclay, which is still visible online[SEE SECOND LINK ABOVE], was accompanied by his words saying he was showing Manchester in ‘stockings, sussies, stillettoes (sic)’.
The bizarre caption added: ‘The truth is just shocking – worse, we believe it’s a scandal! See for yourself what Sean’s been keeping under cover of his holy robes all these years – yes folks, it’s the real Rocky Horror Picture Show on the streets of London N6…I don’t know about you, but we’re ‘disgustipated’ at another holy man of the cloth’s dirty little secret…!’
Farrant, who died in 2019, was jailed for more than four years in 1974 for vandalising memorials and interfering with dead remains Highgate Cemetery, despite his claims that the damage had been caused by satanists.
Barclay’s link to Farrant was revealed in a comment online by a former associate who wrote in 2009 about how she wanted to compile a record of his cartoon pictures.
Mother-of-six Ms Rose was out walking her dog Bruce and was found unconscious on a track in Brantham when she was brutally attacked
Roy Barclay, 56, of no fixed abode, has been convicted of the mother-of-six’s murder (he is seen in an old mugshot)
The woman added in her post that she was trying to trace Barclay but had ‘no clue about his whereabouts’.
She said: ‘I am trying to find out what happened to him – he mysteriously dropped off the planet 4 or 5 years ago, his last known address was Frinton on Sea – that’s a funny place also.’
Michelle Rann, 60, who used to run Shore Taxis in Walton-on-the-Naze, said Mr Gunfield had often visited her office before he was attacked by Barclay ten-years-ago.
She said: ‘He was quite a sprightly pensioner who loved getting out and about. He was a friend of one of my drivers and used to come into the office a couple of times a week so he could answer calls for something to do. He loved bowls and was always on the go.
‘It was absolutely shocking when he was attacked. He nearly died and although he recovered, he never got back to how he was before and was understandably nervous about leaving his house for a long time.
‘He loved his little dog and would take him out for a walk every morning to buy a paper. That was when he was attacked. I don’t think he had ever seen Roy Barclay before.
‘It is awful to think that this guy was let out of prison and then went on to attack and murder this poor lady. I know it is easy to say after the horse has bolted, but he should not have been let out. There are now six children who lost their mum. It’s crazy.’
Barclay displayed a surprisingly erudite side in a letter he wrote to the Halifax Evening Courier in May 2001, bemoaning the ‘national scandal’ that the burial place of Robin Hood at Kirklees Priory, near Brighouse, West Yorkshire, was not being promoted more by the local council.
Barclay displayed a surprisingly erudite side in a letter he wrote to the Halifax Evening Courier in May 2001, bemoaning the ‘national scandal’ that the burial place of Robin Hood at Kirklees Priory, near Brighouse, West Yorkshire, was not being promoted more by the local council
Giving his address as Frinton-on-Sea, he wrote: ‘As an outsider I find it mysterious that an area so closely associated with this country’s legendary hero, Robin Hood, should exist in virtual anonymity…
‘How ironic that such a definitive figure of English folklore should be so exploitable by the popular media, who pretend not a jot of integrity to the actual chronicled history, while the far more intriguing truth remains covered up.
‘I know I’m not alone in considering the reluctance to officially acknowledge [Robin] de Locksley’s burial at Kirklees something of a national scandal.’
After learning Barclay was on trial for murder, having already been convicted of the attack on Mr Gunfield, Farrant’s widow, Della, told the Mail: ‘Wow, so awful how his life seems to have slid.
‘He had a good sense of humour back in the day and shrewd insight into people who were not very pleasant characters. So sad that he has become one himself.
‘David would be appalled. He only knew Roy as a satirical artist and cartoonist really.’
