A former boxer who slit an elderly widow’s throat and stabbed her repeatedly before setting her alight to destroy the evidence has been convicted of her murder.
David Newton, 70, left Una Crown, 86, lying in a pool of her own blood in her modest bungalow after rummaging through her purse and stealing £40 and her wedding ring on January 12 2013.
The benefits claimant spent the money at a local ex-servicemen’s club, where he was spotted changing notes for change to use on the fruit machine.
The grisly scene at Mrs Crown’s bungalow in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, was found by her nephew, who had driven over to collect her for their usual Sunday lunch together with his wife.
Astonishingly, police initially dismissed the incident as an accident and emergency workers, undertakers and family members were allowed to walk through the house and poke through drawers.
During this time, Mrs Crown’s blood was transferred to other areas.
It was only two days later that a mortuary technician raised the alarm about the oversight and a murder case was launched.
Newton, who lived a ‘stone’s throw’ from his victim, was a suspect early on but it was only in 2023 that advances in DNA were able to link him to the horrific crime.
Una Crown, who was found murdered in her home in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire in 2013 – sparking a manhunt that has taken 12 years to conclude
Ex-boxer David Newton has been found guilty of her murder by majority verdict
The last image of Una (circled in white) when she was alive – taken at Tesco in Wisbech on January 11 2013, two days before she died
The defendant, a father-of-three, had denied murder but was convicted by a jury today following a three-week trial.
He stood open-mouthed and stared at the jury as the 10-2 majority verdict was read out.
Mr Justice Garnham said he would sentence tomorrow, saying: ‘The principle sentence I will pass by law is life. I have to determine the minimum sentence to be served and that’s what I’ll do tomorrow.’
Speaking previously about the near-disastrous handling of the case, Mrs Crown’s niece, Judy Payne, said: ‘We have tried to move on but it has been horrendous.’
Newton, a retired kitchen fitter, was a familiar sight around his neighbourhood, where he was often seen stumbling around in a drunken stupor.
It remains unclear how he got into diminutive widow Mrs Crown’s bungalow on January 12, 2013, as there was no sign of forced entry and she didn’t like people – even family – entering her spotless home.
However, Cambridge Crown Court heard he had offered to help her fix her back door at one point and had gone to a local locksmith’s to have a new key cut.
Mrs Crown’s body was found in her hallway the day after her death by John Payne, Judy’s husband, who had driven to collect her to take her for Sunday lunch at their house.
Prosecutors said she had been killed the day before and that DNA evidence was the ‘nucleus of the case’.
Mr Price told jurors when opening the case that ‘male DNA, the profile of which matches that of David Newton’, was discovered by scientists in 2023.
He said this was ‘on nail clippings, which had been taken from the fingers and thumb of the unburnt right hand of Una Crown’.
He said the clippings had been taken at a post-mortem examination in 2013.
The barrister said the reason why Newton ‘went to her house on that night and as to why he then did to her what he did, these are not matters that the prosecution need prove’.
As well as setting fire to her clothes, Newton had started blazes in two other areas as he tried to conceal what had happened.
A post-mortem examination showed the retired postmistress’s injuries included the cut to her throat and four stab wounds from a ‘long-bladed’ instrument.
One went through both sides of her chest, passing ‘through both lungs and the heart’. She also had defensive injuries.
Opening the case, John Price KC told the jury there had been a ‘grave error of judgement’ by the officers who first attended the scene.
But he added: ‘The prosecution alleges that it was David Newton who murdered Una Crown and that he did so acting alone.’
Newton, a widow himself after his wife Janet died following the murder, was seen drunk and walking his dog near her home on the day of her death.
During door-to-door enquiries, he told a police officer he hadn’t made his regular Saturday night trip to the local ex-servicemen’s club to play snooker as he ‘did not have enough money’, so he stayed at home and watched television.
But the jury heard he had been to the club three times on the weekend in question – including twice the day after childless Mrs Crown was murdered, when he splurged money on the fruit machine.
Referring to the tiny amounts of DNA from Mrs Crown’s fingernails that helped snare him, Mr Price said of the fires Newton started: ‘If the purpose… had been to try and destroy the evidence of what he had done to her, then it was to prove ineffective.’
Neighbours paid tribute to Mrs Crown after her death, describing her as the ‘perfect neighbour’ who had a ‘heart of gold’.
The police’s handling of the murder scene was criticised by a coroner in 2015, who said their bungling had allowed vital evidence to be ‘lost’. The officers involved were ‘provided with extra training’.
Detective Superintendent Iain Moor of Cambridgeshire Police said afterwards that ‘mistakes were made during the initial investigation in 2013, for which we have apologised to Una’s family’.
Mr Moor, who became the senior investigating officer in the case, said it was looked at again ‘as part of our normal review processes in October 2022’.
‘Vital evidence was retained from the 2013 crime scene, in the form of DNA under the fingernails of Una Crown’s right hand,’ he said.
‘It was through pioneering new techniques, testing for male DNA only, that gave the evidence breakthrough which has been so crucial.
‘This DNA testing technique was not available in 2013.
‘The DNA allowed us to cast doubt on David Newton’s claims that he hadn’t seen Una on the day, or days, before her death and place him at the scene of her murder.
‘For more than a decade he thought he had gotten away with this most horrendous crime, but today’s result shows you cannot hide forever.’
Mr Moor said he hoped that the guilty verdict ‘gives Una’s family the closure they deserve and the answers they have longed for’, adding: ‘My thoughts are very much with them at this time.’
This is a breaking story – more to follow.
