Life sentence for country-pub killer

Murder victim Terry Taylor

A MAN has been jailed for life for the murder of a retired Oldham paramedic battered to death in the back room of a country pub.

Terry Taylor was on holiday in West Cumbria when he was killed at the Globe Hotel, Cockermouth. Mr Taylor’s occasional pool doubles partner, Michael Sanderson (30), of Plumbland, Cumbria, denied murder saying he “couldn’t remember” the attack.

He was found guilty and sentenced immediately to a minimum 14 years by Judge Michael Henshell at Manchester Crown Court.

The motive for the attack remains unknown, since Sanderson insists he has amnesia. CCTV footage in which Sanderson appears agitated as he talked to Mr Taylor — and the evidence of a barmaid who saw them together — suggested they may have fallen out.

The jury heard the manager of the pub found Mr Taylor’s body at around 3am on May 31. The popular caravanner was taken to hospital but couldn’t be resuscitated. Mr Taylor (59), could have lain undiscovered for over an hour after the attack, which no-one heard and which happened away from the cameras.

In the hours before he was killed Mr Taylor had been on a pub crawl with pals - including Sanderson - in Aspatria, Cumbria. The outing was a “really good natured day full of laughs and banter” according to one of his friends, Esther Bowness.

Mr Taylor had had a static caravan in the area for 15 years, visited regularly with his wife and their two dogs, and the couple were well-known and liked in the area.