Crawley Down man found guilty of murdering his wife and a neighbour

A jury decided Daniel Appleton was in the grip of a psychotic episode after taking powerful synthetic LSD.

They had heard how the car mechanic was naked and ranted he was God after beating a defenceless pensioner to death with her own walking stick before using the same metal pole to bludgeon his wife in an attack last Christmas outside his home in Hazel Way, Crawley Down

Appleton, 38, was heard shouting: “I could murder you,” before dragging his half naked wife out of their home and beating her to death on the driveway.

Appleton told the jury his memory of the killings was like a videotape on fast forward.

He admitted killing his schoolteacher wife Amy, 32, and pensioner Sandy Seagrave, 76, outside his home in Crawley Down on December 22 last year.

He beat the pensioner with her own walking stick when she confronted him wearing just his boxer shorts.

An eyewitness said Appleton enjoyed what he had done, waving the crutch above his head as he stood over her lifeless body before shouting a victory speech to his neighbours.

He turned the same metal stick on his wife before trying to kill himself.

Police found him naked in a pool of his own blood in the family kitchen.

The jury at Hove Trial Centre took two days to reach unanimous guilty verdicts on both murders.

Appleton blamed anxiety over starting a family and stress at work for the tragic events.

A forensic pharmacologist said Appleton’s behaviour was likely to be as a result of (251) NBOMe - a highly potent synthetic version of LSD.

But Appleton denied taking any drugs and told the jury his mental health started to collapse in the days leading up to the killings.

He claimed he was inadvertently exposed to powerful synthetic LSD in prison through passive smoking.

During the second day of his evidence, Appleton offered an emotional apology from the witness box to the families of the women he killed.

He said: “I’m, I’m devastated.

“Absolutely devastated by what has happened.”

Appleton will be sentenced next month.

’I’m devastated by what happened’says Crawley Down man who killed his wife and passerby