This callous killer can stay in jail

David Munley, 61, formerly of Byron Road in Worthing, was convicted of the murder of 87-year-old spinster Jean Barnes at her home in Tennyson Road in December, 2000.

He systematically stole valuables from her home worth thousands in the months before he killed her and sold them to collectors in Worthing. After the murder, he covered her face with a blanket and returned to her house to steal more and hide his crime. Police said Miss Barnes' decomposing body could have lain undiscovered in her home for up to 10 days.

Munley appeared before a single judge at the Court of Appeal in London earlier this year where he was refused leave to appeal his murder conviction during a closed-hearing. He was not represented by solicitors. The detectives who secured his conviction only found out about the failed bid when Munley wrote to a senior officer telling him what had happened.

Detective chief inspector Martyn Underhill, now based in Hastings, said he had no idea what Munley was planning until a letter landed on his desk from the man he had helped put behind bars for life four years earlier.

He told the Herald this week: "He appealed totally out of the blue and the first I knew about it was when he sent me a letter from prison telling me it had been refused. We thought we would have to go to the High Court but it never got that far.

"He asked for leave to appeal in March, came before the judge in May and then I got a letter very recently from him telling me it had been refused. "

Appeals can only be sought when new information or evidence comes to light which could put the original conviction in jeopardy.

Det chief inspector Underhill said he did not know the grounds Munley had wanted to base his appeal on.

Munley was found guilty of murder by a jury at Lewes Crown Court, after a month-long trial, in December, 2000.

The jury was told how the failed businessman forged applications for credit cards and cheques in Miss Barnes' name after he battered her around the head.

He had lived just yards from his victim's home and left notes for the milkman cancelling her deliveries and forging cheques to pay her bills so her body would not be found.

Miss Barnes, a former civil service translator and one of the first women to graduate from Cambridge University, was brutally killed when she stumbled across Munley during one of his many raids on her home, the court was told.

As well as murder, Munley was also found guilty of seven counts of burglary and five of forgery.