MURDER – A twisted Jehovah’s Witness bludgeoned a woman he rowed with over incomplete building works to death with a hammer, then merrily whistled as he packed up his tools and went to lead a service at the church where they met.
What Happened?
Cowboy builder Peter Norgrove, 43, was recorded whistling as he packed away his tools as victim Sharon Gordon, who he was doing work for, lay dying – and that evening the Jehovah’s Witness led a service for worshippers via Zoom at the local Kingdom Hall.
The court heard that Ms Gordon had been introduced to Norgrove – who had recently retrained as a builder – by a friend, and commissioned him to build a ground-floor extension after he successfully undertook some fencing work for her.
Why he Killed Her?
But a job that he estimated would take between four and six weeks ended up talking 15 months, and was still not finished when he finally killed her, a judge was told this afternoon.
Norgrove took a lump hammer and gloves to the property in Dudley, West Midlands, which he donned before killing her last July.
Ms Gordon, 58, suffered at least eight blows to the head in what a judge described as a ‘brutal and savage attack’, and lay dying at the foot of her staircase for up to an hour following the attack.
Footage Captures Some Evidences
Norgrove’s movements outside the house that day were caught on doorbell and home security cameras at his victim’s property. The footage shows him placing a bucket – containing the hammer – on the patio before working on an internal door.
That lunchtime, two friends visited Ms Gordon and the three women discussed the building work in critical terms, the court heard.
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Less than half an hour after the other two women left, Norgrove was filmed donning a pair of red gloves and going inside the back door, just after 2pm. Seconds later, the doorbell camera picked up banging sounds, screams for 18 seconds and inaudible shouting, as Ms Gordon was attacked inside.
Around 20 minutes later, Norgrove emerges outside the house – a blood stain visible on his right calf – and is filmed casually packing up his car, whistling as he does so.
He Moved on Like Nothing Happened
Following the killing, Norgrove drove home and put his clothes in the washing machine before going to collect his daughter from school, arriving late. He then drove to his mother-in-law’s home and dumped the hammer in a shed and bloodied gloves and clothes in a bin beside the outbuilding.
Prosecutor Earl Pinnock said the items were recovered after his mother-in-law later reflected on his brief visit after discovering Ms Gordon had been killed, and retraced his steps at her home.
Ms Gordon’s body was discovered by her best friend the following day.
