A former Royal Marines commando who stabbed a pensioner to death because he ‘hated’ dog walkers has been jailed for 28 years.
Alexander Palmer ambushed retired BT engineer Peter Wrighton as the 83-year-old took a morning stroll with his pet dogs, near the village of East Harling, Norfolk, on August 5 last year.
The 24-year-old’s savage attack was so frenzied that police initially thought it had been carried out by an animal.
The body married father-of-two Mr Wrighton was later discovered by a married couple. He had been stabbed repeatedly in the face and throat and almost decapitated.
Alexander Palmer (left) has been convicted of murdering Peter Wrighton as he walked his dog
Former Commando Palmer had a hatred of dog walkers and had heard voices telling him to kill
Detectives were initially baffled by the apparently motiveless crime in rural Norfolk and could not identify a suspect despite extensive inquiries in the area.
Palmer denied killing Mr Wrighton, but was convicted by a jury at Nottingham Crown Court yesterday. He showed no emotion as the jury took 49 minutes to reach the guilty verdict.
Wearing a red jumper underneath a black suit, Palmer, of Bawdeswell, Norfolk, shook his head as he was handed a minimum of 28 years in prison today.
Sentencing Palmer at Nottingham Crown Court, Mr Justice Goose said: ‘Your offence was substantially aggravated in its seriousness, firstly by the fact that there was a significant degree of planning and of pre-meditation for this murder.
‘Secondly the victim was particularly vulnerable, being aged 83 and alone. Thirdly by the extent of the savage violence you used to kill him.
‘You took a knife and drove to the scene for the sole purpose of murder.
‘You attacked the deceased for no other reason than he was walking his dogs. At the age of 83 and slightly built he was no match for the violence of your attack.’
Mr Wrighton’s children, Andrew Wrighton and Carol Todd, watched from the public gallery as Palmer was taken down to the cells.
Mr Wrighton was an active pensioner who woke every morning at 7.30am and went for a walk
Palmer’s parents were also in court as he repeatedly mouthed the words ‘I love you’ towards them before he was told his minimum term.
David Spens QC, defending Palmer, said: ‘He was suffering from a mental disorder at the time. There is plenty of evidence that he was psychotic.
‘The assault on him by a fellow trainee commander back in 2014 appears to have precipitated his mental disorder. There was not any evidence of any aggressive conduct previously.’
Mr Spens added that although Palmer is now taking prescribed anti-psychotic medication, he was not taking any at the time of the killing.
In a statement given after the guilty verdict on Wednesday, Ms Todd said her family had been failed by mental health professionals.
She said: ‘The revelations of the evidence relating to the mental health of Alexander Palmer have shocked, astounded and angered us.
‘We feel this should not have happened and mental health professionals failed him, his family and our family.’
Palmer, who suffers from mental health issues after an assault, was arrested days later after the attack when a psychologist who had treated him at RAF Marham in Norfolk came forward.
The doctor contacted police after reading about the murder in the press and suggested Palmer was ‘worth speaking to’, jurors were told.
The trial had previously heard that Palmer had told medical professionals he had heard voices in his head telling him to kill strangers and ‘appeared to have some ill feeling or a grudge towards dog walkers’.
Palmer, from Bawdeswell, Norfolk, served in the military between September 2010 and November 2015.
Stephen Spence, prosecuting, told the jury Palmer ‘carried out his ambition’ when he murdered Mr Wrighton.
In a series of hand-written notes and conversations with mental health professionals in the months and years before, the ex-serviceman had spoken of his desire to hurt or kill strangers, with dog walkers being a ‘particular bugbear’ of his.
Palmer, circled, served in the military for five years. He later developed disturbing urges to kill
He had a ‘grudge’ and ‘ill-feeling’ towards them, it was documented, and claimed to have voices in his head named ‘Alex’, and ‘Little Alex’ that told him what to do.
The court was read extracts from medical records made by the team who had examined Palmer at RAF Marham in Norfolk.
One said: ‘He said he is thinking of ‘going for’ dog walkers. He said he hates dog walkers. He said this was because they were constantly muttering things about him under his breath, e.g. ‘weak and ugly’.
‘He said he would tie them to a fence and cut them open. He said he would only do this to dog walkers or people going into their houses with their dogs.’
Psychologists who asked Palmer why he wanted to kill a dog walker had written in their notes: ‘If he did this he would be up on a pedestal, up with the big ones, everyone would look up to him, everyone would know his name.’
The court heard Palmer claimed had been the victim of an assault while stationed with the Royal Marines in Plymouth that ‘seemed to be the trigger’ for a number of mental health problems.
On one occasion, he told a psychologist: ‘When I eventually hurt someone, I know that I will plan out the method in my head, go to the desired place where I wish the scene to be set and then I will carry out the act of hurting someone. It could be anyone that it happens to. Just random, but I will have already thought about what I am going to do.’
Mr Spence said: ‘That is a pretty good account of what happened to Peter Wrighton that day, you might think.’
Palmer also hinted in what was to come in disturbing hand-written notes that were found after his arrest.
One read: ‘Murder they called it, as they wrote up my ascendance to greatness. My gift to you. They weren’t even there to witness my art in all its glory, only its aftermath. I wonder what people will say for years to come. How did he? Why did he?’
Others, in a notebook recovered from a storage facility Palmer hired five weeks before the murder, referred to his dislike of people, killing people, knives and stabbing or slashing throats as a method of killing.
One said: ‘A man/woman? Whichever is first! Cut the throat, no hit over the head first, will be easier* Eyes out to stop the ******* staring!
‘I’m nearly ready. All this pain and hatred has been building up inside for so long! I can’t stop it now it’s getting hard.
‘Our aim is simple. Fear to see the absolute fear in some ones eyes is the one accomplishment I wish in this life. For one day soon I am nearly ready.’
Palmer finally carried out his plan in August last year – with Mr Wrighton his unwitting victim.
Mr Spence said that on what appeared to be an ‘ordinary day’ for the pensioner, he got up at 7.30am and fed his dogs – Gemma, a 13-year-old mongrel, and Dylan, a nine-year-old Scarteen Harrier – before taking Anne, his wife of 53 years, a cup of tea.
He then loaded his pets in his car before driving to a popular dog-walking area of woodland around five miles from his home known as The Heath – stopping en route to buy bread rolls and cakes for his wife.