Man On Trial Over Double Murders

29 October 2012, 18:54 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

A court's heard a Middlesbrough man accused of murdering two people brutally attacked them and ransacked their homes.

36 year old James Allen is accused of murdering Colin Dunford, 81, and Julie Davison, 50, in April this year.

Newcastle Crown Court was told that the motivation in both incidents was robbery.

Robert Smith QC, prosecuting, said:
"Colin Dunford was attacked and killed in his home in Middlesbrough on April 22nd.

Three days later on the morning of April 25th Julie Davison was attacked and killed in her flat in Whitby.

The two of them had no connection with each other and nothing to suggest they knew each other.

It is, however, the prosecution case that they were each murdered by the same man despite the distance between their homes.

The motive in each was robbery. They were brutally attacked and their homes ransacked and the person responsible intended nothing less than their deaths.''

Mr Smith told jurors that after Allen committed the murders he left their homes and locked the doors behind him.

He said the bodies were later discovered by friends and family members.

The prosecution said Allen, of Lothian Road, Middlesbrough, went on to steal from both homes what money he could find and other possessions he was interested in.

Mr Smith said:
"Having killed Colin Dunford in his home, the defendant left Middlesbrough and travelled on a bike first to Whitby and then Scarborough and then back to Whitby.

There, once more needing money, he entered Julie Davison's flat and killed her.''

He is then accused of leaving her home with her money, her laptop and some jewellery, which he would later sell.

He was then eventually arrested in Leeds and charged with both murders.

The trial continues.