A SECURITY guard’s decision to hear a song called Romantic Homicide three times on the night he killed an Annan man shows he had “murder on his mind,” a jury heard.

The comment came from prosecutor David McLachlan KC as he addressed the Carlisle Crown Court murder jury who will decide Jack Crawley's case.

The barrister was taking the jury of six men and six women through his analysis of the case and why, say the prosecution, 20-year-old Crawley is guilty of murdering Paul Taylor and attempting to murder another man.

Crawley, of Sheehan Crescent, Carlisle, who worked at the city's Cumberland Infirmary, admits manslaughter, claiming Mr Taylor, 56, died during a robbery that "went wrong".

He denies murder.

Marcus Goodfellow, 20, a security worker at the same hospital, denies assisting Crawley to dispose of Mr Taylor’s car while knowing his co-defendant killed the former soldier.

Continuing his closing speech, Mr McLachlan quoted lyrics from the song Romantic Homicide, which Crawley repeatedly listened to on October 17 last year, in the hours before Mr Taylor died.

The lyrics include: “In the back of my mind I killed you, and I didn’t even regret it, I can’t believe I said it, but it’s true; I hate you.”

In the time between listening to the song the first time that evening, just before 8pm, and the last time he listened to it, Crawley visited a Carlisle shop and bought two lighters and a bag of charcoal.

Those were the “tools” he later used to burn Mr Taylor’s body.

Mr McLachlan said: “On October 17, at 9.30pm, Paul Taylor’s wife had said goodnight to her husband and she went off to bed; she knew nothing of his other life.”

It was the last time she saw her husband alive.

“Paul Taylor had done nothing wrong to Jack Crawley,” said the barrister. “Even he had to accept that.” Both Mr Taylor and the alleged attempted murder victim in York were older men who engaged in gay sexual encounters.

That was the connection between the two alleged victims.

Mr McLachlan outlined how a Home Office pathologist identified “at least” ten impacts to Mr Taylor skull once his skeletal remains were recovered.

Those injuries, said the pathologist, could be associated with a “accelerated fall” to the ground, as suggested by Crawley, who claims Mr Taylor died after falling during a struggle as he stole his car.

The pathologist also identified fractures to Mr Taylor’s elbow and upper arm, which have been sustained as Mr Taylor tried to protect himself.

“And that, members of the jury, is a big problem for Jack Crawley,” said Mr McLachlan.

“And he knows it. Realising this, he introduced you, for the first time, last Thursday in his evidence in cross examination, to him closing the boot on Paul Taylor’s arm.”

The pathologist concluded it was "more likely" that Mr Taylor sustained the skull and facial fractures when he was alive. The weapon involved could have been a hammer of the type wielded by Crawley on the alleged attempted murder victim, he said.

The barrister said: “The prosecution say that Paul Taylor was killed by multiple blows to his head with a hammer or a hammer type weapon.”

Goodfellow, said Mr McLachlan, had in his police interview failed to mention Crawley talking during the car journey from Langwathby about somebody dying; he failed to mention threatening Crawley to make him “shut up.”

“He didn’t want Jack Crawley to let the cat out of the bag,” said Mr McLachlan.

He refused to accept Crawley said the person who died was “worse than” the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Goodfellow accepted this would have looked bad, said the barrister.

In simple terms, said the barrister, the jury had to determine whether Crawley’s actions against Paul Taylor were manslaughter or murder. He continued: “You know that Jack Crawley pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

“You know the prosecution do not accept this.

“The prosecution case is that that there was by Jack Crawley an intention to kill and that is exactly and precisely what he did. In relation to Marcus Goodfellow, we say he assisted Jack Crawley to get rid of Paul Taylor’s car and he knew he’d committed an arrestable offence in relation to murder or manslaughter.”

Mr McLachlan concluded by reminding the jury of  “an old saying.”

“Three things can’t be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth,” said the barrister.

“And in this case, the prosecution say, Jack Crawley knows the truth and, try as he might to conceal it, try as he might to explain away the unexplainable, and attempt as he might to fit his case to the events, the truth cannot be long hidden here.

“The truth is that he smashed Paul Taylor’s head in; and, in York, he tried to do the same to [the man there], and he is not prepared to own it...

“But he knows the truth and, with respect, we submit that you do too.”

Crawley remains remanded in custody while Goodfellow, of Greystone Road, Carlisle, has been on bail throughout the trial.