A 56-year-old man has been jailed for life after being convicted of murdering a 57-year-old woman in Brantham last summer.
Roy Barclay, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years at Ipswich Crown Court today, Wednesday 6 August 2025.
He was found guilty of the murder of Anita Rose on Wednesday 9 July following a six-week trial.
The court heard that Anita had left her house at 5am on Wednesday 24 July 2024 to take her springer spaniel dog, Bruce, for a walk and was found critically injured by a member of public at approximately 6:25am.
She was found lying across a footpath outside the sewage works off Rectory Lane, unconscious and with visible head and facial injuries. She was wearing only her bra on her top half, as well as leggings and trainers on her lower half. Bruce was not harmed, and his lead had been found wrapped around her leg.
An ambulance was called and Anita was taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital. Due to the nature and severity of her injuries, the ambulance crew called police and detectives immediately began treating this incident as an attempted murder.
On the morning of the attack, local CCTV and doorbell footage showed Anita walking Bruce wearing a pink zip-up jacket, which was missing at the point she was found and presumed to have been removed by the suspect. Also missing were her iPhone, her iPhone case (a distinctive black wallet-style quilted case with gold crown and stud detail), her Samsung earbuds and a door key.
Tragically Anita died on Sunday 28 July 2024, four days after the attack, having not regained consciousness.
An initial post-mortem examination was held the following day, Monday 29 July, with the cause of death later determined as traumatic brain injury. The court heard Anita had sustained injuries to her upper chest, neck, face and scalp and that the level of force was consistent with a prolonged assault of stamping to the head, akin to the injuries seen following a fatal road traffic collision.
A murder investigation was launched, and officers continued to conduct enquiries within the local community and engaging with commuters on train services between Ipswich and Colchester, as well as other public transport. Officers also released CCTV images of Anita and a map of her walking route to the public, in hope that it would prompt potential witnesses to report any relevant information or suspicious activity.
A location tracking application on Anita’s phone indicated that her walk started in Palfrey Heights. It showed that her walk reached the end of Newmill Lane by the Stour estuary, before she turned around and retraced her steps back up Newmill Lane where the app was manually stopped at around 6:03am, close to The Street, at the top of Newmill Lane. The court heard that it was normal for the app to be stopped at this point in Anita’s usual walk.
At 6:15am Anita’s partner made a video call to her, which was answered but the screen was black and the call was silent.
On Saturday 27 July, three days after the attack, Anita’s phone - but not her distinctive phone case - was located in Ipswich after it had been switched on for the first time. The two people, a man and a woman, who were found in possession of the phone were arrested in connection with the incident.
However, it became apparent that there was no evidence to link the couple to Anita or the attack that led to her death.
CCTV footage in Ipswich captured a man, now known to be Roy Barclay, in the immediate vicinity of where the phone was picked up by the couple, shortly before it was switched on.
The footage showed Barclay entering a seating area of Upper Orwell Street carrying a bag. When he re-emerges on CCTV later, the bag is absent.
Detectives carried out extensive enquiries, with officers reviewing more than 700 hours of CCTV footage, conducting house-to-house enquiries, speaking to approximately 3,000 people who live and work in Brantham, taking witness statements and collating information received from members of the public via the Major Incident Public Portal.
Officers were unable to identify one man seen walking in the same direction as Anita a short time after her on the morning of the attack.
Anita had been captured on CCTV in Rectory Lane at 5:16am; the unidentified man now known to be Roy Barclay was captured on the same camera at 5:33am, and then again at 5:37am walking in the same direction as Anita. He was wearing a blue two-tone sweatshirt with a distinctive logo above the left chest, a beanie hat and walking boots.
At the time the man was considered a potential witness, and officers issued an appeal to the public to identify him; the appeal also featured on BBC Crimewatch Live and was subject to a £20,000 reward offered by Crimestoppers.
At approximately 5pm on Tuesday 15 October 2024 DC Barry Simpson, a plain-clothed detective in an unmarked police vehicle who was working on the murder investigation, saw a man walking along the A137 near Brantham who resembled the unidentified man from the CCTV footage.
DC Simpson stopped the man, identified himself as a police officer and requested to speak to him. The man said his name was John Lesley and denied that he was the man depicted in the CCTV image and claimed that he did not normally walk before 7am.
This was subsequently discovered to be a false name that Roy Barclay had given, and police uncovered that he was in fact wanted on recall to prison having breached the conditions of his licence.
The court heard that Barclay had previously been convicted of an assault causing grievous bodily harm with intent in Essex in 2015, which bore striking similarities to his attack on Anita. An elderly man sustained multiple facial fractures and underwent several operations, following an unprovoked attack by Barclay, who originally denied the charge before changing his plea to guilty on the first day of trial. He received a 10-year jail term. The man had been walking his dog when he encountered Barclay; the dog lead had then been wrapped around his leg following the attack.
After being released from prison on licence in February 2020, Barclay had conditions to live at approved premises in Ipswich but failed to comply with those conditions. With his licence revoked, he was recalled to prison in May 2022. Suffolk Constabulary was informed, and Roy Barclay was sought for arrest.
On 21 October 2024 Barclay was located in Ipswich Library, following a police manhunt, and was arrested on suspicion of murder. He was taken to Martlesham Police Investigation Centre for questioning where he was charged the following evening (on 22 October).
Following his arrest, police discovered two areas that Barclay would rough sleep; the first under the Orwell Bridge where, amongst his possessions, police recovered Anita’s Samsung earbuds, from which forensic testing detected the DNA of both Anita Rose and Roy Barclay.
The two-tone blue sweatshirt that he had been wearing on the CCTV image released to the public was also found, with the distinctive logo removed.
A secondary camp of Barclay’s was discovered in a remote and rural location in the outskirts of Brantham, close to the river and railway line, completely concealed by shrubbery and overgrowth.
Amongst his possession, police found Anita’s missing phone case, her pink jacket and her door key. Barclay’s walking boots, seen pictured in the CCTV on the morning of the attack, were also recovered from the makeshift camp and examined by a shoe pattern expert who, the court heard, determined the geometric pattern of the boots were consistent with the marks on Anita’s face.
It is believed that Barclay had made attempts to change his appearance after the encounter with DC Simpson on 15 October, in an effort to evade police, by shaving his head and beard.
Barclay’s phone was seized following his arrest and the court heard that he had diarised the weeks that had passed since his attack on Anita on his phone calendar.
His phone search history indicated that he had closely followed the case on both the Suffolk Constabulary website, as well as local news outlets and social media. He also made several internet searches on DNA detection, general searches about a murder trial duration, prisons, as well as researching the senior officers involved in the investigation.
Further internet searches Barclay made before the attack on Anita showed his interest in Brantham, particularly the sewage works which had a washing and a toilet facility. Whilst this was locked and secured with a perimeter barbed wire fence, police had recorded early in the investigation that the barbed wire fence had been cut and, later, recovered a lock pick kit in Barclay’s makeshift camp under the Orwell Bridge. Police believe Barclay accessed the sewage works to use the facilities to enable him to live off grid.
Phone records also placed him in Ipswich on the morning of 27 July, when Anita’s phone was switched on by the couple, as his own phone accessed publicly available Wi-Fi nearby.
Barclay denied murder but was found guilty of the charge by a jury in a unanimous verdict after approximately two and a half hours of deliberation.
When passing sentence, the Judge described Barclay as “unpredictable, disheartening and a dangerous man”.
The court commended the police investigation and the dedication of the family liaison officers.
Barclay was also sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment for being unlawfully at large after recall to prison since 1 June 2022, to be served consecutively.
Detective Chief Inspector Matthew Connick, the Senior Investigating Officer of the case, said “Anita Rose was subjected to the most shocking and violent attack on the outskirts of her village whilst she was alone and vulnerable on her early morning dog walk.
“This was an extremely challenging and complex investigation requiring the skill and dedication of police officers and staff across all departments within Suffolk Constabulary, and beyond, to identify the offender and to build a comprehensive case against him to secure his conviction.
“This result would also not be possible without the professionalism and commitment of the Prosecution Team.
“Roy Barclay was a deceitful and violent man who lived off grid in solitude. Three days after the attack he left Anita’s phone in Ipswich, enabling it to fall into the hands of others. Whilst causing a distraction and diverting significant resources, this ultimately led to his downfall with further CCTV being obtained capturing his actions.
“Our thoughts remain with Anita’s partner, children and grandchildren who have endured an unimaginable year and have been forced to sit through weeks of painful evidence at trial. I hope todays sentencing brings a measure of justice to them all.
“Lastly, I would like to thank the Brantham community. As part of our investigation we spoke with over 3,000 people living and working in the area and have received nothing but support from them to help catch and convict the murderer and restore the normal sense of safety to the village.”
A voluntary partnership review is underway under the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) process involving the police and the probation service, which will look closely at the information sharing processes and how the organisations collaborated in terms of Barclay who was wanted on recall to prison when he murdered Anita.