6:20PM, Thu Jul 5, 2012

Hammer Murderer Graeme Jarman's Chilling History Of Violence

By Gerard Tubb and Andy Hughes Location: Newcastle Crown Court

Video: Gerard Tubb on Graeme Jarman's chilling history of violence

Graeme Jarman’s chilling past can now be revealed after he was jailed for life for murdering a frail pensioner with a hammer.

The 48-year-old was sentenced to a minimum of 35 years after a jury found him guilty of killing 77-year-old Judith Richardson at her home in Hexham.

The three-week trial at Newcastle Crown Court heard how Jarman tricked his way into her home with charity leaflets, before striking her more than 30 times in the head with a hammer.

After his conviction, his criminal past was revealed at court.

He was jailed for seven years in 1988, for the kidnap and rape of a 17-year-old girl he abducted and locked in the boot of his car.

The teenager endured a seven-hour ordeal in which she was indecently assaulted, whipped, and raped.

Jarman, who boasted to the victim he was a psychopath, blamed the attack on an identity crisis brought on by the break-up of his engagement and a troubled childhood.

VIDEO: Previously unseen CCTV footage that put police on Jarman's trail

His victim said at the time: "I suffered seven hours at the hands of that man.

"I'd like to see him chopped to bits for what he did.

"He held me at gunpoint. He told me to shut up and do what he said, adding ‘I'm your everyday psychopath’.

"Those words will live with me forever."

He had been touring holiday haunts his adoptive parents had taken him to as a child, travelling first to Scarborough and Bridlington, then to the south coast.

After he was released from prison on parole in September 1991, having served just three years of his sentence, Jarman married his long-term girlfriend.

But within four months of the wedding Jarman went missing, on June 5, 1992.

Two days later he conned his way into the home of a young woman in St Annes on-Sea, Lancashire, where he robbed and indecently assaulted her.

The 23-year-old, a youth worker, was bound and gagged by Jarman who had gone prepared for the attack with a 'robbery kit' of a knife, gloves, rope and sticky tape.

Jarman went on the run when he was named as a suspect by Lancashire Police and was snared seven weeks later in Hastings on the south coast.

He was jailed for 15 years after admitting indecent assault and robbery. He was released from prison in 2002 and moved to Oxford where he began sleeping rough.

While on licence, he held a woman at knifepoint before stealing her car. He was jailed in 2003 for eight years at Oxford Crown Court, after admitting theft.

Jarman was released from prison in 2008 and went to live in Stockton. He then moved to Consett , where he was subject to monthly visits from police.