Ex-public schoolboy, 28, killed three OAPs with hammer and spade ‘under delusion he’d uncovered a paedo – The Sun

AN ex-public schoolboy killed three OAPs with a hammer and spade under the delusion he had uncovered a paedo ring, a court heard today.

Alexander Lewis-Ranwell, 28, is accused of killing Anthony Payne, 80, and 84-year-old twin brothers, Roger and Dick Carter in February.

Exeter Crown Court heard he has admitted the killings but was pleading not guilty to murder on the basis of insanity.

The court heard the elderly victims were killed with a hammer and a spade just a few hours apart in Exeter, Devon.

And the jury heard the motive was a mistaken belief from the defendant that he was uncovering a ring of child sex offenders.

Prosecutor Richard Smith QC said: "He suffered delusions – a genuine belief something is the case when it was not so at all."

Mr Smith said the defendant believed the victims were somehow involved in the ring but added: "They were the victims of course and not involved in any such things."

Mr Smith told the jury Lewis Ranwell, of Croyde, Devon, started his killing spree by murdering Anthony Payne with a hammer.

The court heard Lewis-Ranwell first attacked Mr Payne after seeing a note on the door of a rundown property that said the occupant was an elderly man.

He said: "The defendant went in through the front door and found or followed Mr Payne upstairs to the bedroom.

"The defendant took up a hammer and bludgeoned Mr Payne to death with blows to the head."

About two and thee quarter hours later Lewis-Ranwell walked down Cowick Lane.

'HE BEAT THEM TO DEATH'

One of the elderly brothers who lived there tried to usher the defendant away from the house but Lewis-Ranwell went around the back of the house and found a spade, says Mr Smith.

He told the court: "Once inside (he) beat both brothers to death with blows to the head with the spade."

The prosecution and defence agree the defendant has a partial defence of diminished responsibility. It means the defendant has some responsibility for what happened.

Mr Smith told the jury there is no doubt that Lewis-Ranwell was suffering a mental illness at the time.

The question for the jury is how much responsibility he has for the crimes he committed due to his state of mind at the time.

The prosecution say Lewis-Ranwell bears some responsibility for what he did. They do not agree he was legally insane at the time of the killings.

Lewis Ranwell has admitted killing the three men but says he was insane at the time, the judge said.

At the start of the trial Mrs Justice May told the jury: "His plea is on a special basis. It is not guilty by reason of insanity."

She added: "We will be looking at what was in his mind at the time of the killing."

The trial continues.

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