THE HOSPITAL security guard from Carlisle on trial for murder told associates that somebody “worse than” serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer had died, a jury heard.
The comment was made during a car journey from Langwathby in the Eden Valley on October 19 last year, the city’s crown court was told, when 20-year-old Jack Crawley described the dead person as a "drug dealer."
During the alleged conversation, he also said he was "glad" the person had died, Carlisle Crown Court heard.
Crawley has admitted killing Cumberland Infirmary catering manager Paul Taylor, 56, (seen below), at a remote location near Carlisle. But he denies murder.
In a summary of agreed facts, prosecution barrister David McLachlan KC had earlier told the jury how the defendant directed police to the shallow grave in woodland near Carlisle where Mr Taylor’s body was found.
The barrister said the prosecution expected Crawley to claim that Mr Taylor was killed during a car robbery which had “gone wrong.” The defendant also denies attempting to murder a second man in York and an alternative charge of wounding the man with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm.
Crawley claims he was acting in self-defence after the man threatened him.
Much of the third day of the trial was taken up with evidence about what happened on October 19 last year, the day after Mr Taylor died.
There was an account of Crawley meeting fellow Cumberland Infirmary security guard Marcus Goodfellow, 20, before they picked up Mr Taylor’s Vauxhall Corsa car, left in Green Lane, Carlisle, and travelled to the Eden Valley.
But in Langwathby, Crawley crashed the car.
Police later found the Corsa abandoned and inside it they found two bottles of "poppers," a liquid product used to increase sex drive, identical to three bottles of the product which Mr Taylor had bought at an adult shop in Carlisle.
Goodfellow denies "assisting an offender" - Jack Crawley - by helping him to dispose of the car while knowing he had had committed a serious offence.
The jury were shown a video interview with 20-year-old Callum Bell, a former schoolfriend of Goodfellow’s.
During questioning, Mr Bell described getting a Snapchat message from Goodfellow on the morning of October 19, in which the defendant told him there as “an emergency” and asked to be collected from Langwathby.
He drove to the village and found Goodfellow and Crawley, somebody he had not previously met, on a hill near the roadside.
Detectives quizzed Mr Bell about the conversation the three men had during the journey back to Carlisle. “They were in rush to get into the car,” said Bell. Crawley did not say anything but simply got into the back of the car.
At first, Crawley appeared calm and not talkative.
Goodfellow said he had not slept. Mr Bell then recalled how, at one stage, Crawley did talk during the journey, mentioning that somebody had died. “He said someone had died; he was horrible, worse than Jeff Dahmer [the American serial killer].
“He said the world was better without him; it was getting rid of one more rat.” Crawley said the person was a “drug dealer.”
The detectives asked Mr Bell what he thought Crawley’s comments, and he replied that he got the impression that the person had died of old age and that the death was not recent.
But Crawley appeared to be “almost flaunting” the information, he said. “It was weird,” he told the officer. “He was glad that he was gone."
Crawley made his comment “as if it was an accomplishment,” said Mr Bell.
The officer asked Mr Bell what he knew about Jeffrey Dahmer. “I know he killed people and tortured them and kept parts of them,” he replied.
After Crawley made these comments, said Mr Bell, Goodfellow “jumped into” the conversation, changing the subject and talking about work.
Describing the conversation as “weird,” he said it played on his mind and he suggested taking the men to the police station in Carlisle.
But Goodfellow had “just said no – don’t do that. He said it quite sternly,” said Mr Bell. After arriving in Carlisle, he took Crawley and Goodfellow to Greggs as they were hungry and wanted to eat.
It was while outside the shop that Crawley put the petrol cannister he had with him in the boot of Mr Bell’s car, saying: “Keep it.”
During further questioning in court, Mr Bell said Crawley never gave a reason for why the person had died. Under questioning from Toby Hedworth KC, he rejected a suggestion that Crawley told him he and Goodfellow were “being forced” to involve themselves in crime such as robbery.
The barrister suggested Crawley had said: “That’s why I needed to steal a car in the first place.” Mr Bell replied: “He never said anything about the vehicle.”
The witness said: “I had a hunch that something was going on but I never went to the police because of my own safety.” It was three weeks before the police tracked him down, he said.
“What were you scared about?” asked Mr Hedworth. Mr Bell said: “The unknown of who was in the back of my car at the time and the fact I wasn’t sure what he was capable of; I didn’t know Jack personally.”
Crawley, of Sheehan Crescent, Carlisle, remains remanded in custody while Goodfellow, of Greystone Road, Carlisle, is on conditional bail.
In earlier evidence, the court heard that Mr Taylor, a former soldier who had served in Afghanistan, was found buried in a shallow grave at Finglandrigg Wood Nature Reserve west of Carlisle.
He left his home on the evening of October 17 last year and was never seen alive again. The prosecution said Crawley is expected to say that Mr Taylor’s death was the result of a robbery of his car that “went wrong.”
The trial is expected to last three to four weeks.
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