Serious Further Offence 4

From the Herts and Essex Observer:-

Stansted double murder: Jury hears more of Brett Rogers' violent past after guilty verdict

Double murderer Brett Rogers had a history of threats, violence and criminal damage against both parents before his conviction today (Friday) for killing mum Gillian Phillips and her friend David Oakes. The former milkman, 23, stabbed his 54-year-old mother to death and stamped on her face at the home they shared in Bentfield Gardens, Stansted. He also repeatedly stabbed and caused a fatal head injury to David Oakes, 60, who had stayed with her overnight.

Rogers denied murdering them both on July 22 last year, but after an eight day trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, the jury of eight women and four men took five-and-a-half hours to unanimously convict him of both killings. Rogers will receive an automatic life sentence but High Court judge, Mrs Justice Whipple, will sentence him this afternoon and announce the length of time he must remain behind bars before he is even considered for parole.

Last Thursday Rogers attacked a male and female dock officer in front of the jury during evidence by a forensic expert. The woman Serco guard was punched in the face before reinforcements arrived and overpowered him.Since then Rogers' hands have been cuffed together and he was also separately cuffed to a guard. Two other male Serco officers have also accompanied him. Today he sat impassively as the jury announced the guilty verdicts.

After the verdicts, prosecutor Simon Spence QC read out Rogers' previous convictions, which include attacks on his parents and criminal damage on their property, which the jury did not know about. In October 2011 he picked up an ornamental well from his mother's garden and threw it at his father Peter Rogers' window, smashing it. He used a cricket ball on a stick to smash the rear door of the family's address.

In January 2012, his mother would not let him in and he used a shovel to break a window in a door. In June 2012 Rogers was convicted of battery on his father. In that incident he had shouted: "I will get a knife and stick it in you." During a struggle, he put his father in a headlock.

The jury already knew that at the time of the murders, Rogers was on licence. He had been released from prison in March 2015 for causing grievous bodily harm with intent for breaking his father's eye socket in August 2012 at his flat in Bishop's Stortford. The murder trial heard that Mrs Phillips and Mr Oakes had been drinking heavily before they were killed and it would have been difficult to defend themselves. They were both covered in blood.

"Copious" amounts of blood stained the house throughout, both upstairs and downstairs. It was on walls, soaked into carpet, on kitchen, bathroom and bedroom floor, on the cream sofa, white kitchen cupboards, below the cutlery drawer and kitchen bin.

The lifeless body of Mrs Phillips, a divorced mother of two sons, was slumped on a sofa, covered in congealed blood. She had 41 stab wounds to her head, neck and torso, including one which penetrated her skull. She also had 14 blunt impact marks and a trainer, belonging to her son, was linked to bruising on her cheek.

Taxi driver Mr Oakes, who lived in nearby Mountfitchet Road, had 56 injuries to his head, neck and body, both stab wounds and blunt impact. There was significant bruising to the side of his head and his left cheekbone was fractured. His head had been kicked or stamped on. He was lying face down on the living room floor, his breath coming in gurgles. He died, shortly after paramedics arrived, of head injuries. Mr Oakes, who joined the RAF when young, had face cancer and could only communicate through nods and blinks. He and Mrs Phillips were drinking friends, his daughter Louise Wyllie told the trial. She was his only child and had only recently contacted him after many years apart.

Seven bloody knives were found in the kitchen bin, along with blood-stained clothing and trainers belonging to Rogers.The blade of one kitchen knife was severely bent and had both victims' blood DNA on the blade and the defendant's blood on the handle. Rogers had called police and claimed the murders took place while he was away at the shops for a few minutes. He claimed that as he had walked back home he was also stabbed by a stranger who walked past him.

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This from the BBC website:-
Brett Rogers jailed for 32 years for murdering mother

A man has been jailed for at least 32 years for stabbing his mother and her friend to death while he was on licence after attacking his father. Gillian Phillips, 54, and David Oakes, 60, had more than 40 stab wounds each when police found them at her home in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, in 2015. Chelmsford Crown Court heard Brett Rogers was jailed in 2012 for breaking his father's eye socket. The 23-year-old, who received a life term, had denied two counts of murder.

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This seen on twitter:-

"Seems SFO in CRC with offender being supervised by new in post untrained PSO who had been the receptionist."