Burglar who killed elderly siblings has appeal bid dismissed

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A career criminal who was jailed for life almost 30 years after killing two elderly siblings has had a bid to challenge his convictions thrown out by the Court of Appeal.

Danville Neil was imprisoned for a minimum of 32 years in November 2022 for the murder of Second World War veteran William Bryan, 71, and the manslaughter of his sister, 74-year-old widow Anne Castle, during a break-in at their east London home in August 1993.

The sentencing judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, said Neil’s actions were “unscrupulous” and “lacking in mercy”, describing the crime as “notorious and universally appalling”.

At a hearing on Tuesday, three judges dismissed Neil’s bid to challenge his convictions, with Lord Justice Edis, sitting with Mrs Justice May and Judge Heather Norton, stating that there was not an “arguable ground” on which he could appeal.

Neil, who was 65 when he was sentenced, did not attend the short hearing in London.

His trial at the Old Bailey was told that Mr Bryan and Mrs Castle were beaten and restrained as Neil ransacked their flat in the search for valuables.

The victims had lived together in a flat in Bethnal Green since Mr Bryan was invalided out of the Army in 1945, with Mrs Castle being widowed in 1987.

Mrs Castle suffered a heart attack and Mr Bryan went into cardiac arrest after being beaten and smothered during the night-time raid.

Jurors heard that Neil pulled two wedding rings and two diamond rings from Mrs Castle’s fingers but failed to find some £4,000 in cash, some of which had been stashed in socks.

No-one witnessed the attack, but screams were heard by neighbours, the court was told.

Police were called to the address on August 23 1993 and found Mrs Castle’s body slumped in an armchair, with her brother lying on the floor.

While a hammer and a screwdriver were recovered from the crime scene, the killings went unsolved for nearly 30 years until Neil’s DNA was found on the knot of a strap used to tie Mr Bryan’s hands.

Neil, who had convictions for some 15 burglaries between 1973 and 1998, told jurors that he accepted his DNA was found at the scene of the killings but denied he had been there or knew the victims.