Danville Neil Wiki – Danville Neil Biography
Danville Neil, 65, “dodged justice for years” after attacking World War Two veteran William Bryan, 71, and widow Anne Castle, 74, during a raid on their east London home in August 1993. Neil was convicted of the murder of Mr. Bryan and the manslaughter of Ms. Castle.
He was sentenced to life in prison on Friday and ordered to serve a minimum sentence of 32 years at the Old Bailey. Judge Cheema-Grubb said: “He dodged justice for almost 30 years, now justice has caught up with him.” She later said: “This was a notorious and universally heinous crime, both for its history and for the doubly fatal consequences of what it did.”
Danville Neil Age
Danville Neil was 65 years old.
Danville Neil Cause of Death
The retirees were beaten and held while their apartment was ransacked for valuables. The judge told Neil that his actions were “unscrupulous” and “ruthless”, and the brothers died “as a result of his greed”. She added: “You were a well-established and experienced career thief in 1993.
“But you were in the habit of offending in a much more serious way.” Neil removed two wedding rings and two diamond rings from Mrs. Castle’s fingers, but was unable to find some £4,000 in cash, some of which was hidden in the socks. , the Old Bailey was told.
Ms. Castle suffered a heart attack and Mr. Bryan went into cardiac arrest after being beaten and suffocated during the nightly raid. No one witnessed the attack, but neighbors heard screaming, suggesting a “protracted robbery and attack,” jurors heard.
Judge Cheema-Grubb told the court: “The suffering of one of them was compounded by the knowledge that the other had died or was dying, that is inescapable. “They were virtually facing each other, it is not difficult to imagine, even if nobody wants it, the anguish they had to endure due to the suffering of the other.”
Police were called to the address on August 23, 1993 and found the body of Mrs. Castle slumped in an armchair, with her brother lying on the floor. The murders went unsolved for nearly 30 years until Neil’s DNA was found in the knot of a strap used to bind Mr. Bryan’s hands.
The court heard that Neil had a series of convictions for some 15 robberies between 1973 and 1998.In 1984 he carried out two home invasions in three months in which the occupants were physically assaulted. He was jailed for the violent robberies and released on license in August 1992, a year before the double murders.
During his trial, Neil accepted that his DNA was found at the scene of the murders, but denied being there or knowing the victims. He claimed that an innocent explanation for the forensic bond was that he had sold Mr. Bryan binoculars at a car boot sale and that it was the strap that was used to tie him up.
But Mrs. Castle’s grandson remembered that his great-uncle was interested in gadgets and had two sets. of binoculars that he would have bought new. Jurors heard that the victims had lived together in an apartment in Bethnal Green since Mr Bryan invalided out of the army in 1945, and Mrs Castle was widowed in 1987.
A statement from Ms Castle’s granddaughter, read in court, described her as a “pillar of the community who was well loved and respected by all”. She went on to say that the couple “showed all the good things in people.”
Read Also: Who was Christopher Taylor? Wiki, Biography, Age, Family, Cause of Death
