Vengeful Lee Peacock guilty of girlfriend and associate's murders

Clinton Ashmore and Sharon Pickles were fatally stabbed just hours apart

A "warped and angry" killer has been found guilty of cutting the throats of his girlfriend and an associate weeks after being released from jail.

Lee Peacock, 50, attacked his partner Sharon Pickles, 46, and Clinton Ashmore, 59, in Westminster in August 2021, the Old Bailey heard.

Peacock admitted killing the pair but denied murder.

He turned the 4cm-long knife on himself when police tracked him down to a houseboat after a five-day manhunt.

During the trial, prosecutor Edward Brown KC had described Peacock's actions as "cold-blooded" and "determined".

Lee Peacock had claimed he killed his partner "accidentally"

The jury had heard Peacock was out to "punish" his partner and Mr Ashmore during a two-day violence spree.

On the evening of 19 August 2021, Peacock's father alerted police that his son had visited him and confessed to being a killer.

Jurors heard he had turned up at the property with Ms Pickles's kitten in his rucksack.

Officers went to her home in Marylebone and found her body wrapped up and hidden under a bed, with a signed confession nearby.

Later that day, Peacock was captured on CCTV walking with Mr Ashmore towards his Westminster flat, then leaving alone 15 minutes later.

Two hours later, Mr Ashmore was discovered dead by friends.

Both victims died from similar knife wounds to the neck.

'Intended to kill'

Peacock was eventually located with the kitten on a houseboat moored on the Grand Union Canal in central London on 25 August.

Mr Brown told him: "You committed two terrible murders with your warped and angry mind, that's the reality and you confessed to two terrible murders, didn't you?

"You were determined to punish Sharon Pickles and you were determined to punish Clinton Ashmore.

"You intended nothing less that to kill each of them, didn't you?"

The jury retired at the Old Bailey on Tuesday and deliberated for two hours and 20 minutes to find Peacock guilty of the double murder.

Sentencing has been adjourned until Wednesday morning.

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