A former Eden Valley leisure centre lifeguard is facing a life prison term for murdering an Army veteran and trying to kill another man.
Married dad-of-two Paul Taylor was reported missing by his wife, Maria, on October 18 last year. She had seen him the previous evening laughing away watching television at their family home in Annan.
Later that night, Mr Taylor left their address for what became a fatal meeting with Jack Crawley, then aged 19, at a secluded spot on the outskirts of Carlisle.
Mr Taylor was an exemplary catering manager at the city’s Cumberland Infirmary, where Crawley also worked, and described as a workaholic. Crawley had, several years ago, lived in Appleby and worked as a lifeguard at the town leisure centre.
Carlisle Crown Court heard Mr Taylor met men for sex and hid his double life from loved ones. He had both bought cannabis and previously engaged in sexual activity with bisexual Crawley, now 20, the pair communicating via gay dating app Grindr.
Months after Mr Taylor’s disappearance, on May 1, Crawley disclosed to police that his body would be found at remote Finglandrigg Wood, near Carlisle.
Officers found skeletal remains which were devoid of any internal organs and soft tissue. His corpse had been brutally burned and then dragged into a shallow hollow by Crawley.
A pathologist concluded there were at least 10 powerful blows delivered to Mr Taylor’s skull which, a prosecutor said, had been “completely smashed in”.
Trauma injuries to Mr Taylor’s elbow suggested he may have tried to defend himself from attack. The left lower leg was completely detached from the rest of his body, reported the pathologist, who concluded the terrible injuries could have been caused by a claw hammer.
After Mr Taylor’s death, Crawley made failed attempts to sell his Vauxhall Corsa, which he later crashed and abandoned in Langwathby on the morning of October 19. While being transported back to Carlisle, Crawley described a person dying being worse than (serial killer) Jeffrey Dahmer, and getting rid of one more rat.
Detectives learned Crawley had listened to a song called Romantic Homicide five times in the hours before he murdered Mr Taylor.
“The prosecution case is that this was a premeditated murder,” prosecutor David McLachlan KC has told a Carlisle Crown Court jury, “that Jack Crawley had murder on his mind and carried out his plan by killing Paul Taylor.”
Crawley admitted manslaughter and denied murder, but was convicted, unanimously, by the jury of six men and six women today. His claims of a carjacking gone wrong and trying to break up Mr Taylor’s body with a mallet after death and burning was blown apart by damning forensic evidence. He denied prosecution suggestions that he had a fascination with serial killers.
After his arrest in November on suspicion of murder and release from custody, Crawley later skipped bail from Carlisle.
He was seen around new year in Penrith, disguised and wearing what one train station worker described as an obviously fake Hagrid-style beard. He travelled around Scotland before carrying out another shocking assault in darkness on the outskirts of York on January 5. That victim was another homosexual man aged in his 50s who was bludgeoned with a hammer which he wrestles from his attacker.
Crawley ran off and was later arrested in Bath. He denied attempting to murder that man but was also convicted unanimously on that charge.
As the verdicts were announced, Crawley, of Sheehan Crescent, Carlisle, showed no emotion in the court dock.
Mr Justice Goose told jurors he agreed with their verdicts, and said he would sentence Crawley later this week. “You have now been convicted of the counts as the jury have found,” the judge told Crawley, “and you are to be sentenced on Wednesday at 11am. You will be brought to court for that purpose.” Crawley remains remanded in custody.
- A second man on trial, 20-year-old Marcus Goodfellow, of Greystone Road, Carlisle, was acquitted of helping Crawley dispose of the Corsa.
