‘Rapidly moving object’ cast blood onto ceiling of bedroom where grandfather was found dead, court hears

Please note this story contains extremely distressing imagery that it is necessary to report in the interests of open justice.

John Boyle, 71, was found dead in his bedroom at Leatherland Court, Kettering, on November 9 last year. John Mills, 46, is standing trial accused of his murder.

Alexander Peet, of Cellmark Forensic Services, told the court how his colleague Nicholas Smith had visited Mr Boyle’s ground floor flat on the evening that Mr Boyle’s body was found in his bedroom.

Mr Smith was unable to attend court so Mr Peet gave evidence using his detailed analysis.

He told the court that his firm had been called to the address after police found Mr Boyle’s body, following concerns raised by his daughter Lorraine about his whereabouts.

Mr Smith’s task was to provide interpretation of visible blood distribution and identify items in the bedroom that might help police in determining the circumstances that led to Mr Boyle’s death.

Mr Peet told the jury that blood from the assault was mainly transferred in two ways - by contact and by a force hitting the blood, breaking it into small droplets that land on other surfaces.

He said: “If there was a small pool of blood on the desk here, and someone had hit that pool of blood, blood would be transferred from that area. We’d term that blood impact spatter.

“Another way is cast-off. That’s generated when an item is swung. So if there’s wet blood on an item that’s swung, due to the force of that swing, blood can be forced off the item and that can leave a distinctive pattern.

“Blood may also just fall due to gravity itself. We’d term that a dripped spot.”

He said that his team would look at blood staining and try to work out how the transfer had happened.

Mr Peet said that there were piles of clothes, some still with tags on, in the bedroom.

Prosecuting, Andrew Vout KC said: “It was quite a chaotic scene?”

“Yes,” replied Mr Peet. It was described as very cluttered.”

Mr Boyle’s body was on the bed underneath blankets with clothes piled on top. His head was on a pillow with extensive blood staining around it.

The jury was shown pictures of the scene.

Mr Peet said there were a number of spots of blood on the headboard from airborne transfer, which were a result of force being applied to wet blood. He said his colleague had also found a piece of body tissue on a jewellery box placed next to the bed.

Mr Peet said: “There was an abundance of drip trails on the bed as if someone was moving around dripping blood.

Mr Vout asked: “There was nothing to indicate Mr Boyle had been upright and nothing to indicate he’d been moving around?”

“That’s correct,” said Mr Peet.

“In my opinion.. the description of the blood indicated he was struck multiple times in approximately the position he was found lying in the bed.”

Mr Peet was asked how many times he believed Mr Boyle had been struck.

“It’s difficult to put a specific number of blows on it, but it would be multiple blows in my opinion and it would require at least three to generate the patterns we observed at the scene.”

The blood found at the scene all matched the DNA of Mr Boyle.

Mr Peet was asked about ‘cast off’ blood staining to the ceiling of the room. He said it had likely been flung off a surface that was moving quite rapidly.

He said: “It would be indicative of some sort of weapon being swung and therefore being used to strike Mr Boyle. So blood comes off it as a result of the force of it being swung.”

The items on top of Mr Boyle were not blood-stained, which Mr Peet said showed they had been placed on his body after he had been attacked. He said there was also some smearing to blood on the walls, suggesting it had been wiped with fabric.

Mr Peet was also asked about a hat found in the bedroom of Mr Boyle. He said the distinctive pink cap had the DNA of John Mills in the headband and the top of the cap. Although there was DNA from other people in the item, Mills’ DNA was found in the most ‘substantial’ amounts.

A home in Victoria Street, where Mr Mills’ girlfriend Jordan White lived, was also searched by police. They found a white facemask that was described in court as ‘grubby’. The jury have already heard that Mills was allegedly wearing a facemask as he walked around Kettering on the day Mr Boyle died.

The mask had spots of blood on it, which all matched Mills’ DNA.

Under cross examination from Jason Bartfeld KC, Mr Peet was asked about the amount of blood generated during an attack such as the one on Mr Boyle.

“There’s no control over where that blood goes?” asked Mr Bartfeld.

“No,” replied Mr Peet.

He confirmed that a suspect would have had some blood on them in these circumstances.

The charges

Mills, of Marriott Street, Northampton, denies Mr Boyle’s murder, the theft of Mr Boyle’s car, and a separate burglary on November 8 at another address in Kettering.

He has already pleaded guilty to four further charges. He admitted taking Mr Boyle’s Vauxhall Astra without consent; conspiracy to steal from Mr Boyle; and two counts of fraud involving the use of a bank card belonging to an 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, 28, 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.