A violent career criminal has finally been convicted of a double killing he committed 30 years ago, after modern forensics tied his DNA to the crime scene.
Danville Neil attacked Second World War veteran William Bryan, 71, and sister Anne Castle, 74, during a break-in at their east London home in August 1993.
Neil was found guilty of Mr Bryan’s murder and of Mrs Castle’s manslaughter, after a trial at the Old Bailey revealed his DNA was found on the knot of a strap used to tie Mr Bryan’s hands.
The pensioners were beaten and restrained as their flat was ransacked in the search for valuables.
Neil pulled two wedding rings and two diamond rings from Mrs Castle’s fingers, but failed to find more than £4,000 in cash – some of which had been stashed in socks, the court heard.
Mrs Castle suffered a heart attack and Mr Bryan went into cardiac arrest after being beaten and smothered during the night-time raid.
No-one witnessed the attack, but screams were heard by neighbours, suggesting a “prolonged burglary and attack”, jurors heard.
Police were called to the address on August 23, 1993 and found Mrs Castle’s body slumped in an armchair, with her brother lying on the floor.
Jurors were shown images of the ransacked scene, with cushions up-ended on the sofa, broken glass from a vase, a lampshade askew in the corner, a pair of glasses on the floor, and Mrs Castle’s handbag on the ground with the contents spilling out.
A hammer and a screwdriver were recovered from the crime scene.
Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said: “In various locations around that flat, Mrs Castle had hidden away – found by police, not found by those who burgled and killed her – over £4,000 in cash.
“She was somebody who kept cash in that way around that property, but they did not find it despite the ransacking that had gone on.”
The court heard 65-year-old Neil had a string of convictions for some 15 burglaries between 1973 and 1998.
In 1984, he carried out two home invasions in three months in which the occupants were physically assaulted.
In a chilling precursor to the murders, a couple were beaten with an iron bar and the wife also smothered with a pillow as their three children slept in their home in Penge, south London.
The husband’s hands were tied up with a belt and Neil attempted to pull the wife’s ring from her finger.
Although no children were harmed, Neil told the couple: “Your kid’s dead, right we’ve killed your little girl, got it. Tell us where the money is or we’ll smash your heads in.”
Two months later, Neil assaulted another woman after breaking into her home in Norbury, south London, before making off with a music centre and £15 in cash.
He was jailed for the two violent burglaries and released on licence in August 1992 – a year before the double killings.
During his trial, Neil had accepted his DNA was found at the scene of the killings, but denied he had been there or knew the victims.
He claimed an innocent explanation for the forensic link was that he had sold Mr Bryan binoculars at a car boot sale and it was the strap which was used to bind him.
But Mrs Castle’s grandson remembered his great uncle was keen on gadgets and had two sets of binoculars which he would have bought new.
Jurors heard that the victims had lived together in a flat in Bethnal Green since Mr Bryan was invalided out of the Army in 1945, with Mrs Castle being widowed in 1987.
There were cheers in the public gallery of Court One at the Old Bailey as the guilty verdicts were given on Friday afternoon.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb remanded Neil into custody to be sentenced on Friday, November 25.
