The jury has retired to consider its verdict in the trial of a convicted double killer who is accused of bludgeoning his elderly neighbour to death with her coffee table.

Lawrence Bierton has denied murdering 73-year-old Pauline Quinn on the grounds of diminished responsibility after attacking her in her home in Rayton Spur, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, on November 9 2021.

Bierton, who has not given evidence in his trial at Nottingham Crown Court, was on licence at the time of the killing after being released from a life sentence for murdering two elderly sisters in 1995.

It is accepted that he is responsible for Ms Quinn’s death, with his barristers urging jurors to instead find him guilty of manslaughter.

This is a very serious case and you must give it all of the care and consideration that it merits

Speaking before the jury of seven women and five men retired on Thursday, trial judge Mr Justice Pepperall said: “This is a very serious case and you must give it all of the care and consideration that it merits.

“You must reach if you can a unanimous verdict. The law allows me in certain circumstances to accept a verdict which is not the verdict of you all.

“Those circumstances have not arisen.”

The trial has heard that Bierton, 63, an alcoholic, visited Ms Quinn to ask for money, which she refused to give him, sparking the attack.

Audio of Bierton repeatedly striking “defenceless” Ms Quinn with her wooden coffee table, recorded after she pulled a red emergency cord, was played to the jury for a final time on Thursday during the prosecution’s closing speech.

In a police interview, Bierton said he then attacked Ms Quinn “just to quieten her” as, in his words, things had “gone too far”.

Prosecutor John Cammegh KC said in his closing speech that these comments showed Bierton was “hell-bent” on avoiding a recall to prison and that his “calculated” actions showed a “callous and chilling desire” to murder Ms Quinn.

He is going to follow this through, because in his selfish mind, his only desire is to not go back to prison, and the only way of preventing that is to end her life and hide the evidence

He said: “He doesn’t stop to get help, he doesn’t stop to try to save her life.

“He is going to follow this through, because in his selfish mind, his only desire is to not go back to prison, and the only way of preventing that is to end her life and hide the evidence.”

Ms Quinn, a grandmother who lived alone with her dog, was “an easy target” for Bierton, with her death being “strikingly similar” to the murders for which he was jailed for life in 1996, Mr Cammegh added.

The trial has heard Bierton drank vodka and rum and took crack cocaine and Subutex, an opioid, on the morning of the attack, and said in a police interview that the attack “didn’t make sense”.

Bierton’s barristers said the defendant’s alcohol dependency constituted an “abnormality of mental function” which would have affected his judgment at the time of the attack and “played a major part” in the motiveless killing.

This, defence KC Mark McKone said, would have resulted in Bierton suffering from withdrawal symptoms which would have “obviously substantially impaired” his thinking, and urged jurors to instead find Bierton guilty of manslaughter.

This killing would not have happened if alcohol withdrawal symptoms had not caused Lawrence Bierton to lose self-control

In his closing speech, said: “This case is not about someone behaving irrationally and losing self-control because they are drunk.

“This case is about someone behaving irrationally and losing self-control when they are suffering from withdrawing from alcohol.

“There is simply no sensible alternative explanation in this case.

“This killing would not have happened if alcohol withdrawal symptoms had not caused Lawrence Bierton to lose self-control.”

The trial continues.