Man guilty of bludgeoning Lewes mother with claw hammer and dumping her body in wheelie bin

Richard Canlin, 42, unemployed and of no fixed address, was found guilty of killing Nicola Stevenson, 39, at Hove Crown Court today (Tuesday, October 13).

He will be sentenced tomorrow (Thursday, October 14).

The court heard that Canlin brutally murdered Nicola in her home in Stansfield Road, Lewes, in a frenzied attack with a hammer, which Nicola kept under her sofa for protection, on October 10, last year.

He then dumped her body in a green wheelie bin in undergrowth on the edge of the recreation ground off Landport Road, Lewes, which was not found until five weeks later.

Nicola, who was originally from Edinburgh, had numerous skull and face fractures and a fracture to her neck. Her body was in a state of decomposition.

The court heard that Canlin had been lodging in Nicola’s one-bed flat for about a month to six weeks before she went missing, but she wanted him to leave.

After she went missing, he lied to neighbours and said she went to Scotland. He also did not report her missing or attempt to contact her.

Canlin changed Nicola’s electricity into his name and used Nicola’s bank card to buy items, including a snooker table and xbox, the court heard.

He also continued to collect her prescription pain relief medicine from the pharmacy and told neighbours that Nicola had transferred the flat tenancy to him.

Video footage of him buying cleaning products at Aldi at the time of when she went missing was also shown to the jury.

During the afternoon of October 10, Nicola contacted a friend to say Canlin was ‘kicking off again’ because she had caught him out again stealing her prescription medicine and was refusing to leave her home, the court heard.

Nicola sent a message to her friend saying: “Hey, can you send police to mine please, he’s kicking off because I’ve caught him out stealing my meds again.”

She sent another message just a minute late that read: “Please.”

Nicola tried calling the police on 101, but there was no answer, the court heard.

She then sent two emails to a police officer, telling her Canlin was getting abusive because she ‘wanted him out’.

Nicola’s friend then told her to contact 999 and that was the last he heard from her, the court heard.

Police attended Nicola’s home on November 15, two days after her body was discovered and Canlin had ‘made himself very much at home’, the court heard.

In Nicola’s bedroom there was blood splattered on the ceiling, walls and radiator.

There was also blood soaked rolled up carpet on the bedroom floor and blood on a sheet that was in a washing machine and a foam mattress and mattress protector inside a suitcase.

Police recovered the murder weapon in a wheelie bin outside Nicola’s flat.

A claw hammer with Nicola’s blood was on it and Mr Canlin’s DNA was on the handle consistent with the hammer being held by him.

During the trial, body-worn footage of police arresting Canlin was played to the jury.

The eight-minute video clip showed officers knocking on the door of Nicola Stevenson’s flat on November 13, last year, the day after her body was found in a wheelie bin.

Police were seen knocking and shouting through the letterbox multiple times but there was no answer. The officers then used an enforcer to gain entry to the flat.

In the video, police are seen making their way into the flat and arresting Canlin, who is heard saying: “You having a laugh.”

Canlin is put in handcuffs and taken outside the property, where he told officers: “I ain’t killed nobody.”

Canlin claimed a man called John Parish killed Nicola. Mr Parish was initially arrested on suspicion of her murder, alongside Canlin, but police found no evidence connecting him to the murder.

The court heard evidence from Mr Parish. He said he and Nicola became friends but she wanted to be in relationship with him, but he did not want this.

He told the court he moved into Nicola’s flat to become her carer as he was homeless at the time – but he left because Nicola wanted to be in a relationship and ‘things were going south for them because they were using drugs’.

The court heard that Canlin was convicted seven years ago of killing his dog.

Following a successful bad character application by prosecution, the court was told that Canlin was convicted of killing his Staffordshire bull terrier, Daisy, in 2013.

On June 12, 2012, the dog’s body was found by Canlin’s support worker, in a holdall, in the cellar of a property in which Canlin was living.

When interviewed by RSPCA officers Canlin claimed Daisy had been run over by a truck.

The dog’s injuries were examined by a veterinary pathologist, who found there were multiple bruises around the dog’s face and head, with a large bruise to the temporal region.

The court was told that the dog had multiple fractures, which, in the view of the pathologist were sustained on three separate occasions as a result of significant trauma.

The conclusion of the veterinary pathologist was that possible causes of these injuries include kicking or hitting with a blunt instrument, the court heard.

The court also heard that Canlin admitted causing unnecessary suffering to another Staffordshire bull terrier called Leyla by inflicting trauma to the animal’s head. He also had convictions for criminal damage and abusive behaviour.

Nicola was a vulnerable person and suffered with congenital deformities of the spine and a form of dwarfism. She was 4ft 9in tall and walked with a stick and used a mobility scooter to get around.