How murderous Jehovah’s Witness bludgeoned feminine buyer with hammer

A twisted Jehovah’s Witness bludgeoned a girl he rowed with over incomplete constructing works to loss of life with a hammer, then merrily whistled as he packed up his instruments and went to steer a service on the church the place they met. 

Cowboy builder Peter Norgrove, 43, was recorded whistling as he packed away his instruments as sufferer Sharon Gordon, who he was doing work for, lay dying – and that night the Jehovah’s Witness led a service for worshippers by way of Zoom on the native Kingdom Hall.

The courtroom heard that Ms Gordon had been launched to Norgrove – who had not too long ago retrained as a builder – by a pal, and commissioned him to construct a ground-floor extension after he efficiently undertook some fencing work for her.

But a job that he estimated would take between 4 and 6 weeks ended up speaking 15 months, and was nonetheless not completed when he lastly killed her, a choose was informed this afternoon.

Norgrove took a lump hammer and gloves to the property in Dudley, West Midlands, which he donned earlier than killing her final July.

Ms Gordon, 58, suffered at the least eight blows to the top in what a choose described as a ‘brutal and savage attack’, and lay dying on the foot of her staircase for as much as an hour following the assault.  

Norgrove’s actions exterior the home that day had been caught on doorbell and residential safety cameras at his sufferer’s property. The footage exhibits him inserting a bucket – containing the hammer – on the patio earlier than engaged on an inside door.

That lunchtime, two mates visited Ms Gordon and the three girls mentioned the constructing work in crucial phrases, the courtroom heard.

Less than half an hour after the opposite two girls left, Norgrove was filmed donning a pair of crimson gloves and going contained in the again door, simply after 2pm. Seconds later, the doorbell digicam picked up banging sounds, screams for 18 seconds and inaudible shouting, as Ms Gordon was attacked inside.

Around 20 minutes later, Norgrove emerges exterior the home – a blood stain seen on his proper calf – and is filmed casually packing up his automotive, whistling as he does so.

Following the killing, Norgrove drove residence and put his garments within the washer earlier than going to gather his daughter from college, arriving late. He then drove to his mother-in-law’s residence and dumped the hammer in a shed and bloodied gloves and garments in a bin beside the outbuilding. Prosecutor Earl Pinnock stated the gadgets had been recovered after his mother-in-law later mirrored on his transient go to after discovering Ms Gordon had been killed, and retraced his steps at her residence.

Ms Gordon’s physique was found by her finest pal the next day.

The courtroom was informed the side-extension obtained off to a foul begin when Norgrove struggled to safe a digger, that means he ended up having to dig a number of the foundations out by hand.

In an entry on 3 May 2022, virtually a month after work began, Ms Gordon famous on her calendar: ‘Peter arrived late today, then popped out so it was never going to get done today.’

At the top of that month, he despatched what she described as an ‘alarming’ textual content requesting an additional £3,000. She replied declaring that the work ought to have already been accomplished every week earlier in accordance with his proposed schedule, but had not gone past the muse stage.

By that point Ms Gordon had paid him 5 out of the six scheduled funds in the direction of the £29,000 agreed payment for the work, and it was ‘clear there was a steady reduction in her trust and confidence in him’.

Grandmother Ms Gordon wouldn’t permit him a key to enter her residence on the three days every week when she was within the workplace, which Norgrove complained contributed to the delays. The courtroom heard that work was additionally halted or slowed down by a requirement to get the work checked by a constructing inspector at completely different phases of the construct, or by inclement climate.

By the top of January of 2023, their relationship had ‘soured further’, the prosecutor stated.

Ms Gordon informed Norgrove prices had now exceeded the agreed value, and requested him to reimburse her by the £473 quantity she stated she had overpaid.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard Ms Gordon was additionally a Jehovah’s Witness and belonged to the identical fellowship as her killer, though the 2 had not met earlier than on the church

Mr Pinnock stated the ‘pattern of irregular attendance, dissatisfaction and mutual distrust continued into the summer.’

Just over a fortnight earlier than Norgrove killed her, the courtroom heard Ms Gordon despatched him a protracted WhatsApp message ‘lamenting the amount of time he had been taking on two-month extension, which she attributed in a large part to his ‘lax timekeeping.’

On the day of her loss of life final July, Ms Gordon had messaged Norgrove a few earlier alternate between them over a £100 radiator he had agreed to pay for, after damaging it throughout set up.

After killing accounts assistant Ms Gordon, father-of-three Norgrove went residence and carried on his household life as regular. That night, the Norgroves went to the Kingdom Hall in Dudley, the place he led a part of the service for these dialling in on Zoom.

 A publish mortem examination discovered that Ms Gordon suffered fractures to her cranium. She died of traumatic mind accidents attributable to repeated blows to the top.

Balbir Singh, defending, denied that there was vital planning within the fee of the offence and described Norgrove because the ‘perfect family man, husband and father’ who was ‘full of regret and remorse’ The courtroom heard the defendant’s spouse Rebecca, 43, was standing by him.

He stated Norgrove had no earlier convictions, telling Judge Michael Chambers: ‘The person before you today is far, far removed from the kind of person you usually sentence for this offence.

Sentencing, Norgrove, of Sedgley, Dudley, to life with a minimum term of 15 years, the judge said he ‘quite deliberately’ took the hammer and gloves to her residence to be able to perform the assault.

He informed the defendant: ‘You were angry because she had continued to criticise you for chronic delays and poor workmanship on what was a relatively simple extension.’ 

There was no reply at Norgrove’s semi-detached residence this afternoon.

A neighbour informed the Daily Mail: ‘We were shocked to hear what had happened.

‘We have no idea why he did this, it’s terrible and incomprehensible.

‘They are a nice family and good neighbours.

‘Rebecca has been staying on and off with her parents recently.

‘They have three children who all go to the local school. It’s all so desperately unhappy and obscure.’