Lawrence Bierton: Worksop man killed elderly sisters in 'brutal' attack in 1995 - and 26 years later he has murdered again

He and co-defendent Michael Pluck, who at the time lived in of Sunfield Avenue, in Kilton, were sentenced to life in prison for the murders of sister Aileen Dudill, 79 and Elsie Gregory, 72.

Bierton was released from prison in 2020 and today, more than half a century after the killings, he has admitted to the murder of Pauline Quinn, aged 73, in Rayton Spur, Kilton, Worksop in November 2021.

The prosecution case at the trial in 1996 heard that Bierton and Pluck bludgeoned, suffocated and burnt the sisters to death in a burglary that went wrong at their home in Herringthorpe Valley Road, in Rotherham in 1995.

The sisters had greeted the killers with tea and cakes and poured milk into china cups, placed neatly on a tray.

Prosecutor Robert Smith QC said Bierton and Pluck had previously carried out gardening work for the sisters who paid them in cash, and that they believed the old ladies would be an 'easy target'.

They turned to murder when one of the sisters found then stealing from the home, when they were gardening.

One of the two pensioners was bludgeoned to death with a hammer-like weapon, while her sister was stabbed.

Odd job men, Bierton and Pluck, who lived together, put the sisters' bodies under a pile of burning furniture in their living room in the hope to burn down the house and cover their tracks.

Bierton and Pluck had left together after loading property stolen from the sisters into Pluck's van and they had then "conspired to cover up what had happened."

At the trial, the jury heard that Bierton had left bloodstains on the floor, walls and various items in the property, and his fingerprint was found on the inside of the front door between the lock and the handle.

He also left blood on a knife found at the property.

Two days after the killings he went to A&E at Bassetlaw Hospital with a healing cut which had severed tendons at the base of his little finger which the court heard was consistent with being caused by the bloodstained knife found at the property.

Pluck, who insisted he was innocent, twice appealed his conviction.

He failed in an appeal in December 2002 and his case was then referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the independent body which investigates suspected miscarriages of justice.

It came after claims that a vital prosecution witness, who condemned Pluck at trial, was a 'pathological liar'.

However top judges rejected claims Pluck was a victim of a miscarriage of justice at a hearing held in December 2010.

Pluck died in HMP Rye Hill on February 13 2012.

His death came just five days after his doctor wrote to the parole board requesting his release from prison. He was under the belief that Pluck had less that three months to live.

Bierton, now of Rayton Spur, Kilton, will be sentenced for the murder of Pauline Quinn, and theft, on June 10.

He has been told to expect to spend the rest of his life in prison. He has been remanded in custody.

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