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Daniel Appleton guilty of murdering wife and pensioner

Sussex Police Daniel AppletonSussex Police
Daniel Appleton bludgeoned the two women to death

A man has been found guilty of beating an elderly woman to death with her own walking stick, before using it to murder his wife.

Daniel Appleton, 38, admitted the manslaughter of Sandy Seagrave, 76, and Amy Appleton, 31, in Crawley Down, West Sussex, on 22 December 2019.

However he denied murdering the women, claiming he had a psychotic episode.

Jurors at Hove Crown Court found him guilty on Tuesday and he will be sentenced on 25 January.

Sussex Police Sandy Seagrave and Amy AppletonSussex Police
Sandy Seagrave and Amy Appleton were both murdered with a walking stick

Appleton, of Hazel Way, Crawley Down, chased his wife out of their home and attacked her on their driveway, the court heard previously.

Ms Seagrave, who was passing by, saw what was happening and tried to intervene.

But Appleton turned his aggression towards the pensioner and murdered her with her own walking stick.

He then returned to his schoolteacher wife and bludgeoned her to death with the same stick, the court had been told.

Eddie Mitchell Police at sceneEddie Mitchell
The women died days before Christmas 2019 in the West Sussex village

Appleton had claimed he experienced a psychotic breakdown that was out of his control and brought about by stress.

However samples of his hair and nail clippings revealed traces of a psychoactive substance similar to LSD were in his system at the time of the murders.

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