Murderer jailed for life in 'double jeopardy' first after killing two pensioners in separate burglaries 20 years ago

A burglar who killed two pensioners 20 years ago in a case that made legal history has been jailed for life.

Jewel thief Michael Weir, 52, battered veteran Leonard Harris, 78, and mother-of-three Rose Seferian, 83, during two separate burglaries five weeks apart in 1998.

The connections between the two deaths were not made at the time after police failed to match Weir’s palm print to one recovered from the Harris home.

Mr Harris’s widow Gertrude, who also suffered head injuries, died a few years later in a care home.

During the attacks Weir, of Hackney, north-east London, stole a signet ring and gold watch from Mr Harris and ripped diamond rings from Ms Seferian’s fingers, a trial at the Old Bailey heard.

The case is believed to be a legal first of a defendant convicted twice for the same offence, following an acquittal in the Court of Appeal. It is also the first time a second charge has been added to a double jeopardy case.

Weir was convicted of Mr Harris’s murder, burglary and the attack on Mrs Harris in 1999 but his conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal on a technicality in 2000.

He was tried for Ms Seferian’s killing after new forensic evidence came to light, and re-tried for Mr Harris’s murder following a change to the double jeopardy law. A jury at the Old Bailey found him guilty of both murders on 14 November this year.

Jailing Weir for life with a minimum term of 30 years on Monday, Mrs Justice McGowan said: “For the families, it’s impossible to understand the extent of their grief but it is not difficult to understand their sense of loss and outrage.

“You killed their parents, they died terrified – killed for items of jewellery.”

As Weir was convicted, Mrs Justice McGowan told jurors – who had not been told of Weir’s previous conviction over Mr Harris’s death or the circumstances of his retrial – that they had made legal history.

Prosecutor Tom Little QC said it was believed to be the first double jeopardy case to involve a defendant being found guilty of the same murder twice.

It was also the first time a second murder charge had been added to a double jeopardy case, brought in light of new and compelling evidence following a change in the law in 2005.

Detective Chief Inspector Shaun Fitzgerald said Weir had “literally thought he had got away with murder” but would now have “significant time to reflect on his utterly callous actions towards two completely innocent victims”.

During his fresh trial, jurors heard that Weir broke into Mr Harris’s flat in East Finchley, north London, leaving him with serious head injuries on January 28, 1998.

The pensioner was found by an estate agent on the communal landing, calling for help while his wife, who suffered from dementia and lay badly hurt on the floor of the bedroom. Mr Harris died in hospital five months later.

Three days after the attack, police found a palm print on the bedroom door but missed the match to the defendant at the time because of issues with the quality. But DNA testing that was not available in 1998 later produced more evidence that Weir was at the crime scene.

On March 5, 1998, Ms Seferian was attacked in the three-bedroom flat in Kensington, west London. She died in hospital a month later.

A palm print was recovered from inside the flat on a window frame where Weir broke in but it was not matched to the defendant until 2017, the court heard.

By 2018, the new DNA evidence in the Harris murder had been obtained and the palm prints from both scenes had been matched to the defendant, jurors were told.