Hunnisett had ‘paedophile hit list’, court told

Christopher Hunnisett, 28, of Chanctonbury Drive, Hastings, previously denied one count of murder at Lewes Crown Court saying in April last year: ‘It is not wrong to try and stand up to evil in this world.’

Police found Peter Bick, 57, dead in his flat on January 11 2011 after Hunnisett handed himself in at Hastings Police Station, admitting the crime.

The court heard that there was ‘not a shred of evidence’ he was a paedophile but that Hunnisett became convinced he was after becoming involved in a sexual relationship with him.

Mr Bick, who shared a love of carriage racing with Prince Philip, was bludgeoned to death with a hammer in his flat in Bexhill, East Sussex.

He had previously boasted to neighbours that he had driven for the Duke of Edinburgh, although there are no records to support his claim.

Prosecutor Philip Katz QC said: ‘Peter Bick was living on his own in a studio flat, there is not a shred of evidence that he was a paedophile.

‘There is an abundance of evidence that he enjoyed consensual sex with adult men, including this defendant.

‘Hunnisett has striven in every devious way he could to make it look like the man he killed was a paedophile.

‘We will hear from a young woman who had a relationship with him after he got out of prison.

‘She will tell you about his various and coloured sexual preferences.

‘He talked to her about his plan to kill paedophiles.

‘He is confused about his own sexuality but that does not make it right to kill people then make himself look like a hero.

‘He had planned to kill more men who he had been in contact with on the internet, he compiled a hit list and Peter Bick was at the top of that list.

‘On some of these internet chat rooms Hunnisett was pretending to be a woman.

‘None of the men he arranged to meet was a paedophile.

‘This is a cold blooded and dangerous killer.’

The court heard today that Hunnisett had previously served eight years of a life sentence for the murder of an 81-year-old retired priest called Reverend Ronald Glazebrook.

His body had been dismembered and was found in two different locations in Sussex.

Mr Katz told the jury that Hunnisett had met Glazebrook through the church when he was young boy and later became his lodger before being convicted of his murder in 2002 .

Throughout the trial Hunnisett denied knowing how Reverend Glazebrook died, claiming he found the dead body in the bath ‘panicked’ and recruited a friend to help him dispose of it

The jury convicted him of murder and he was sentenced to life, however in September 2010 he was acquitted of the murder at a retrial by the Appeal Court – where it emerged the clergyman sexually abused him throughout his teens.

Hunnisett then admitted punching the vicar for trying to grope him in the bathroom — and claimed he then fell in the bath and died.

It was just four months after this conviction was quashed that he walked into a police station confessing to the of Peter Bick.

Mr Katz said: ‘That history is of central importance.

‘I also want to mention that before and after both his trial and retrial and before the trial today Hunnisett has been seen by different psychiatrists and not one of them think that he is mentally ill and not one thinks he has a personality disorder.

Mr Katz added Hunnisett had already admitted killing Mr Bick but the jury must decide whether he can mount a partial defence of diminished responsibility.

He said: ‘This was a brutal and carefully planned murder, responsibility for which he is trying to escape in any way he can.’

The trial is expected to last three weeks.