A MAN who battered his 86 year old neighbour to death last May smirked yesterday as he was jailed for life for the "vicious and cruel" murder. Belfast Crown Court was told William John McFall (30) feared that the pensioner, Mrs" Martha Gilmore, might identify him as the burglar of her Greenisland home, so he bludgeoned her to death with a hammer.
Jailing McFall, Mr Justice Campbell said it was hard to "imagine what she must haven experienced" in confronting him in the hallway of her Station Road home early on, May 5th last year. "The one thing only to be said for you is that you pleaded guilty," Mr Justice Campbell said.