Pensioner found guilty of murdering his neighbour

A 67-year-old man has been convicted of murdering his neighbour after recording an altercation outside their flats on a dictaphone.

James Hughes from The Old Palace Flats, St Asaph, wore the dictaphone around his neck and sat on top of Harold Turner, 68, before beating him with his walking stick on Christmas day last year.

Turner died as a result of asphyxia and blunt force trauma. Hughes denied murder and manslaughter.

During the trial, Caernarfon Crown Court heard that Hughes had frequently been banging on his wall with his walking stick, to the extent that Mr Turner was about to move into alternative temporary accommodation in order to get some sleep.

The court heard the confrontation on 25 December 2025 occurred because Mr Turner made complaints about noise from Hughes’ property.

There was a subsequent confrontation outside Hughes’ flat, during which Hughes ended up sitting on his neighbour.

The jury heard a recording made by Hughes, in which Mr Turner was heard telling Hughes to “Get off me” and that “I can’t breathe”, to which Hughes replied “What a ******* shame”, and “You can ******* die for all I care”.

After the incident, Hughes went back into his flat, turned on the radio and made himself a hot drink.

In a phone call made to his nephew some time after the altercation, which was still being recorded on his dictaphone, Hughes said: “I think I may have killed someone.”

He continued: “I was sitting on him, dying… ‘please get off me, get off’.” He described how “his head’s ******* bleeding ‘cos I ******* whacked it with my new walking stick, his face is ****** up, badly.”

Later in the conversation, Hughes told his nephew, “I just hope I haven’t killed him or I’ll cop a murder charge”, before saying “I don’t give a **** about him”.

After the phone call, Hughes can be heard asking his dog where his walking stick was as he needed to wash it.

When Hughes eventually called for an ambulance, he told emergency call handlers that he thought Hughes may have had a heart attack, and that “I hit him with my stick, and he fell, and he banged himself against the window.”

A postmortem examination found Mr Turner died as a result of asphyxia and had suffered blunt force trauma to his face and head.

Hughes was found guilty at Caernarfon Crown Court of the Murder of Mr Turner and will be sentenced at a future date.