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Guilty: Man convicted of brutal Rainham murder that saw alcoholic savagely beaten to death with vodka bottle
Mark Croxson has been convicted for the murder of Rodney Parlour. Picture: Met Police - Credit: Archant
A serial offender has been found unanimously guilty of murdering an alcoholic with a vodka bottle in what the judge described as “a despicable act of cruelty”.
Rodney Parlour was found dead on Monday, October 2. Picture: Met Police - Credit: Archant
Mark Croxson, 48, of no fixed abode, was found guilty of beating 51-year-old Rodney Parlour to death on or around October 1 last year at the latter’s flat in Hood Road, Rainham.
After two weeks and one day of hearing evidence from both the prosecution and Croxson’s defence, it took just three hours for the jury to reach a unanimous guilty verdict.
Mr Parlour’s body, which had suffered 67 different injuries, was discovered on Monday, October 2, when a next door neighbour went looking for him, and looking through his front door’s letterbox spotted his bloody body.
Croxson’s sister had told the court she witnessed the brutal attack, in which her brother, a serial offender with a history of common assault convictions, savagely attacked Mr Parlour with a vodka bottle.
She claimed an argument had broken out after Croxson accused Mr Parlour of being a notorious sexual predator, which he was not. However, throughout the trial Croxson insisted his sister was a drunk and that this had not happened.
When police officers broke down the door and entered the flat, they found Mr Parlour’s body at the bottom of the blood-soaked stairs, and further investigation revealed he had been heavily beaten on as many as five separate occasions in the flat’s kitchen, lounge and living room areas.
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In some places Mr Parlour had been beaten so savagely that blood had spattered the ceiling.
Addressing Mr Croxson after the verdict was announced, Judge Martyn Zeidman QC said: “This was a despicable act of cruelty carried out upon a vulnerable person.
“Of course there will be a life sentence –the minimum length will be determined at a hearing at a later date, but you are not going anywhere.
“You will have a lot of time to reflect upon what you have done and what you have destroyed.”
Croxson is due to be sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court on April 20.
