Hampshire man goes on trial for historic murder (From Daily Echo)

Hampshire man Paul Taylor goes on trial for murder of Sally McGrath in 1979

2:22pm Friday 12th October 2012 in News By Echo Reporter

 

A SEXUAL predator who targeted young women committed a murder which went unsolved for more than 30 years, a court heard.

Sally McGrath, 22, was found naked in a shallow grave in woodland near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire in March 1980 after vanishing in July 1979.

Her killer could not be found despite a major police investigation.

Former soldier Paul Taylor, 60, from Fareham, was arrested last year.

Taylor was charged with Miss McGrath's murder along with three counts of rape, one attempted rape, a serious sexual assault and an indecent assault.

The sexual offences relate to three different women.

Taylor denies the charges.

Prosecutor Karim Khalil told Chelmsford Crown Court that Taylor was married at the time of the 1979 offences.

He openly slept with other women, regularly going for ''quickies'', but insisted in a police interview that the relationships were always consensual.

But Mr Khalil said: ''In the 1970s he was a reasonably good looking and physically strong young man. He was brimming with confidence and had the capacity to be an engaging flirt and a ladies' man.

''But if he did not have his own way he had the capacity to become violent very quickly. He used this violence to force young women into submission or simply have his way with them.''

Mr Khalil told jurors: ''You may well wonder that these offences were not prosecuted or prosecuted more vigorously closer to the time. But it is your task to ensure justice is done now. He has escaped justice for too long.''

He outlined a series of attacks on women in the build-up to Miss McGrath's murder.

After each attack Taylor ''turned the charm back on'', even buying one of his victim's an ice cream and a T-shirt to replace the one he had torn off.

On July 11 Miss McGrath left her parent's home in Peterborough, telling her mother ''Cheerio, see you tonight.''

Mr Khalil said: ''That was the last her mother saw or heard of her daughter alive.''

She spent the afternoon in The Bull hotel with Taylor, the last confirmed sighting of her.

Mr Khalil said: ''It is clear she went with someone who she knew and was taken somewhere that he knew. She was stripped naked and was attacked.

''She was left in a shallow grave where no doubt her killer hoped she would never be found.

''Eight months later she was found by chance by a gamekeeper.''

Mr Khalil said that because of the passage of time, it was not possible to establish precisely how Miss McGrath died but she had suffered blows to the head.

Taylor, who was jailed in 1980 after a burglary conviction, was questioned over Miss McGrath's death shortly after the discovery of her body.

He denied knowing Miss McGrath or frequenting The Bull hotel.

He became ''obsessed'' with reading newspaper reports about the search for her and wrote letters to his wife from prison asking her to burn his clothes, the court heard.

The case is expected to last for up to eight weeks.

Proceeding