Bristol – A swimming instructor meticulously planned the murder of his friend and the disposal of his body, a court in Bristol heard on Wednesday.
Martin Sugden, 42, held a long-standing grudge against 29-year-old Durban fitness instructor Donovan van Lill and had told a friend he was going to kill him, jurors were told.
After his arrest, police found a macabre plan of how Sugden was going to murder Van Lill and get rid of his corpse without leaving a trace, Bristol Crown Court heard.
It said the former paratrooper was going to kill Van Lill, dismember his body and burn it before crushing the bones with a hammer.
Christopher Parker QC, prosecuting, told jurors: “We suggest that Martin Sugden killed Donovan van Lill as an act of late retribution, revenge, which came from a sense of restorative justice.
“He thought he was completely safe from detection and the perfect crime he had committed.”
Van Lill was last seen alive at his home in Pewsham, Chippenham, Wiltshire, by his girlfriend, Radka Paulovicova, on March 3 last year.
The divorced father-of-two was reported missing when he failed to show for work at the Olympiad leisure centre in Chippenham the following day.
Sugden, who worked at the same leisure centre, was arrested on March 19 when police heard that he had confessed to killing Van Lill and disposing of his body to his friend Jerard McKay a week earlier, the court heard. After his arrest, police searched the home he shared with his parents and were said to have found a notebook called “Begin Again” which outlined his warped views of the world.
Parker said: “(It was) his views on how the world should be ordered and how people who do unjust things should be punished by people who would be Knight Priests of Good.”
Sugden, of St Quintin, Wiltshire, denies a single charge of murder.
Parker said police had also found a detailed plan of how to kill someone named as “Donavan” – who the prosecution say was Van Lill – and dispose of his body.
The jury of five men and seven women listened as Parker read out the items on the list: Pick him up with all his stuff; Take him to a container; Check weapon; Fork, spade shotgun 2+2 (cartridges); Clothes and trainers; Cleaver; Club hammer; Poncho; Bag to line car seat; Green sheet to make lean-to; Lump hammer; Tape; Lime; Burn my stuff and his stuff; Rubble bags; Bucket; Water container.
Parker said: “This is a rudimentary shopping list or planning list or agenda for the murder of Donovan van Lill.
“We say that the documents overall reveal a disturbing and disturbed pattern of thought from a much disturbed mind.
“It is a list of materials to carry out the killing of Donovan van Lill, but partly it is the list of materials used to dispose of the corpse without leaving a trace of evidence and the disposal of the body and the certainty that the body of Van Lill would not be recovered. He had been thinking about it and planning it for a very long time.”
In another notebook, which had a picture of the Disney character Piglet on the front, the court heard Sugden had listed a series of targets including supporters of the Conservative Party, Lloyd’s Names, PR gurus and contributors to the Daily Mail and Daily Express newspapers. – Press Association.