Kettering grandad was killed in a 'brutal cowardly' attack by man keen to 'impress women', court told

John Mills fatally fatally attacked John Boyle at his Leatherland Court flat before stealing his car then travelling to three seaside resorts, spending £3,500 using his bank card, the first day of a murder trial heard yesterday (Thursday, November 3).

The two-week proceedings at Northampton Crown Court will hear how Mills was ‘desperate’ to impress two women by pretending to have ‘money to spend’.

It’s alleged this is why Mills, of Marriott Street, Northampton, befriended ‘vulnerable’ Mr Boyle and stole from him.

Opening the case, prosecuting, Andrew Vout KC, told the jury of eight men and four women that, on the evening of Sunday, October 26, 2025, Mills was standing in John Boyle’s bedroom.

"John Boyle was, in all likelihood, asleep,” said Mr Vout.

"He was in a place where he should have been safe, his bedroom.

"But very sadly, John Boyle was not safe. Because the man standing in his bedroom, John Mills, was in possession of a weapon.”

Mr Vout told the jury that the weapon is believed to have been ‘something like’ a baseball bat or a hammer.

He said Mills launched a ‘brutal, cowardly attack’ on his victim.

‘Unsurvivable’

Mills had struck Mr Boyle to the head ‘more than once’, with a blunt weapon, causing ‘catastrophic injuries.’

The court was told that his head injuries were ‘unsurvivable’ and that he would have died very quickly.

Mr Boyle’s skull was ‘shattered and crushed’.

Mr Vout said that blood pattern analysis showed it was unlikely Mr Boyle had the time to even sit up during the attack, “or to move an arm to try and protect himself from the blows that rained down on his head.

"He died quickly and brutally,” Mr Vout told the jury.

"We say the evidence will make you sure of that.”

The court heard that Mills says he is not guilty, and that they have ‘got the wrong person’. He says someone else is responsible for Mr Boyle’s death.

Mills denies murder, the theft of Mr Boyle’s car, and a separate burglary at the house of an elderly woman in Kettering.

‘He didn’t have money at all’

The jury was told Mills conspired with his girlfriend Jordan White to steal cash from Mr Boyle between October 24 and November 9 last year, and that Mills murdered Mr Boyle on October 26, before stealing his car the following morning.

Mills was ‘keen to impress’ women, including White and another woman called Kim.

Mr Vout said: “He tried to impress women by suggesting to then he had money to spend.”

"This wasn’t true. He didn’t have money at all.

"His efforts to get money are what we say led to him killing John Boyle.”

Mr Vout said that the victim made candles in his spare time and that he had taken to leaving the window of his ground-floor flat open to avoid setting off the fire alarm.

Mr Boyle had suffered a mental breakdown in the months before his death, and was ‘vulnerable’, the court heard.

But after Mills, 46, befriended him, he took a photo of his bank statement which was later found on his phone.

The day before he died, the court heard Jordan White was twice seen leaving Mr Boyle’s flat, before withdrawing cash using his bank card, before returning few minutes later.

Fingerprints

John Boyle spent the afternoon of October 26 with his family, having Sunday lunch. He returned home in his car at 6.20pm, and that was the last time he was seen alive.

Just minutes after he arrived home, the court heard Mills was seen crossing Carrington Street heading in the direction of Leatherland Court. He emerged from the building at 10.34pm.

The prosecutor said that Mills’s fingerprints were found on the outside and inside of a window at the flat and his DNA was found on a cap on Mr Boyle’s bed.

At 6.44am on Monday, October 27, Mills was seen behind the wheel of Mr Boyle’s car. He drove around cashpoints in Kettering, withdrawing money from Mr Boyle’s account, before getting a cab to Stanier Road retail park where he bought himself outfits.

A taxi driver who collected him suggested in a witness statement he had a ‘gangster attitude’.

In the following days, Mills and White visited Skegness, Great Yarmouth and Clacton-on-Sea spending a ‘significant amount of cash’.

Mr Vout said that last of the £3,500 in Mr Boyle’s account was ‘frittered away’ on Clacton Pier on November 3.

"Mills and White had spent the money in John Boyle’s bank account in just a week,” he told the jury.

Burglary

Then, on November 8, a 77-year-old woman was sitting in the living room of her house in Kettering.

She heard the back door open and a man wearing black clothing with his hood up walked in.

“We say this was John Mills and he was targeting another vulnerable individual,” said Mr Vout.

The woman’s bag was taken and her bank card was used five times within minutes, the court heard.

That same evening, the body of Mr Boyle was discovered in his flat by police officers who had been called to do a welfare check.

Mills was arrested later that night in the Vauxhall Astra. Bank cards in the woman’s name were found inside.

Earlier yesterday afternoon, Mills pleaded guilty to four further charges. He admitted stealing Mr Boyle’s Vauxhall Astra; conspiracy to steal from Mr Boyle; and fraud involving the use of a bank card belonging to the elderly female victim. Mills admitted using her card at a shop in Avondale Road and at Sainsbury’s petrol station on November 8 last year, days after the alleged murder.

The second defendant, Jordan White, of Victoria Street, Kettering, previously admitted conspiracy – with Mills – to steal from Mr Boyle between October 24 and November 9. She is not on trial for murder and will be sentenced for the conspiracy at the conclusion of these proceedings.

The trial continues.