Updated: Thug jailed for murder of Sunrooms cleaner in bar beating

5:00pm Wednesday 19th November 2008

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A VIOLENT thug has been jailed for 21 years for the murder of a 64-year-old cleaner.

David Graham, was sentenced yesterday for the attack on cleaner John Murray at the Sunrooms bar, Market Place, Southend.

Graham, 32, of no fixed address, was sentenced along with Mark Knight and Wendy Jones at Chelmsford Crown Court.

As he passed sentence Judge Christopher Ball QC told Graham: “The attack was largely unprovoked.

“It was a savage attack on a person, 64 years old, in his own workplace. You showed him no mercy as the attack unfolded.”

Graham was sentenced to 21 years and the year he has spent in custody will be taken off this total. It is the minimum he should serve before being considered for parole.

The court was told he has 24 previous convictions for 69 offences, including a four-year prison spell for death by dangerous driving.

He pleaded guilty to murder at an earlier hearing.

Knight 24, of Kingfishers Close, Basildon, was sentenced to six and a half years for man-slaughter and three and a half years for conspiracy to rob, both to be served concurrently.

Jones, 33, of Worcester Drive, Rayleigh, was given three years for conspiracy to rob after she was found guilty at a trial held earlier this year. The judge said: “Jones proved herself to be quite an exceptional liar and showed herself to be without any sense of shame or remorse.”

The court heard how the group had spent the days leading up to the robbery drinking and taking drugs.

They went to the bar in the early hours of July 5 where Jones and a fourth defendant, Ashleigh Wellman, who is due to be sentenced later this week, distracted Mr Murray.

Graham then knocked the cleaner to the ground and began rifling through his pockets.

After Mr Murray began struggling with Graham, he called for Knight to help, who was upstairs trying to steal record decks. The four then fled with about £3,000. It was at this point that Wellman, 24, of no fixed address, called for an ambulance.

Mr Murray spent three months in a coma before he died at Southend Hospital.

Speaking after the case, Det Supt Simon Dinsdale, said: “John Murray was the victim of a violent robbery that resulted in his murder.

“Nobody deserves to have their life ended in this way and while nothing can bring John back, I hope the sentences passed go some way towards helping his family move on with their lives.”