Anita Rose killer posted hundreds of reviews on Google while on run before murder
A grandmother was brutally murdered by a wanted man while she was walking her dog on a public footpath, but her killer evaded cops despite posting hundreds of Google reviews while on the run.
Roy Barclay, 56, viscously attacked Anita Rose, 57, with "numerous kicks, stamps and blows" and she died in hospital four days later due to serious head injuries. Her vile attacker had previously been jailed for fracturing nearly every bone in an 82-year-old's face, 10 years ago, but was released from prison.
Barclay was then wanted by police for breaching his licencing conditions but managed to evade cops for two years, despite leaving behind a large digital footprint. Today he was sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court to life for murder with a minimum term of 25 years in prison.
Anita's murderer had been on Suffolk Police's most wanted criminals list after he breached the terms of his licence by making himself homeless. He was previously jailed for grievous bodily harm with intent over an attack on an 82-year-old man in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex.
The criminal attacked pensioner Leslie Gunfield, leaving him with serious head injuries, after he told Barclay he would inform security about him going through rubbish bins at a Co-op supermarket.
After his release from his first stint in prison, the attacker shaved his head and lived in hidden makeshift camps with no fixed address.
Police were not able to find the 56-year-old but the man on the run had left a trail online through reviews on Google Maps. The criminal had left hundreds of reviews at locations across Suffolk and Essex under his name Roy.
The man on the run posted thousands of pictures of a bizarre range of sites, including libraries Amazon lockers, churches, council buildings and statues. His frequent reviewing made him a "level 8" contributor on Google Maps, with level 10 being the highest.
Barclay had even left a review in the month he murdered Anita - of the Decoy Pond in Brantham, a short distance from where she was killed. The criminal continued to review places after the horror attack, with his final set of posts about the Flatford area on the Essex-Suffolk border.
Despite Anita's daytime murder and hundreds of reviews, the killer was caught during a chance meeting with a Suffolk Police officer, where his "nervous" and "anxious" behaviour raised alarm bells, a detective said. The fugitive was arrested six days after this encounter, at Ipswich County Library.
Barclay denied murder but he was found guilty following a trial at Ipswich Crown Court. Prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC told the court that the criminal had "lived mostly in the countryside, wandering the fields and lanes, sleeping in various makeshift camps".
Paxton added: "Two very different worlds collided: Anita, partner to Richard, a mother and grandmother, out with the family dog Bruce, before she went off to work. Her world collided with Roy Barclay's world, a desperate man on the run from police for two years, having been in prison for beating Leslie Gunfield's face to a pulp.
"Roy Barclay took Anita Rose's life in an explosion of violence. Blow after blow, stamp after stamp and kick after kick. Roy Barclay's determination to keep his liberty and save his skin is revealed in the brutality of the injuries he inflicted on Anita Rose."
His attack on Anita was compared to the violence he inflicted on pensioner Leslie, 10 years ago. Both Anita and Leslie were found with a dog lead wrapped around them after they were brutally beaten, with Paxton telling the court it could "almost be described as a signature of Roy Barclay".
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