This is the chilling moment a cowboy builder was caught on camera with blood on his trousers after the hammer murder of a woman after they rowed because he had not finished her six-week extension job 15 months later – as he is jailed for life.
Peter Norgrove, 43, was then recorded whistling as he packed away his tools as victim Sharon Gordon lay dying – and that evening the Jehovah’s Witness led a service for worshippers via Zoom at the local Kingdom Hall.
The court heard Ms Gordon had been introduced to Norgrove – who had recently retrained as a builder – by a friend, and commissioned him to build a ground-floor extension after he successfully undertook some fencing work for her.
But a job that he estimated would take between four and six weeks ended up talking 15 months, and was still not finished when he finally killed her, a judge was told this afternoon.
Norgrove took a lump hammer and gloves to the property in Dudley, West Midlands, which he donned before killing her last July.
Ms Gordon, 58, suffered at least eight blows to the head in what a judge described as a ‘brutal and savage attack’, and lay dying at the foot of her staircase for up to an hour following the attack.
Cowboy builder Peter Norgrove can be seen with blood on his trousers as he cleans away his tools after he beat his victim to death
Norgrove had been commissioned to build a ground-floor extension after he successfully undertook some fencing work for Ms Gordon
Norgrove is pictured before the crime without blood on his trousers after putting on a pair of gloves
Peter Norgrove, 43, (left) was then recorded whistling as he packed away his tools as victim Sharon Gordon (right) lay dying
Norgrove’s movements outside the house that day were caught on doorbell and home security cameras at his victim’s property. The footage shows him placing a bucket – containing the hammer – on the patio before working on an internal door.
That lunchtime, two friends visited Ms Gordon and the three women discussed the ongoing building work in critical terms, the court heard.
Less than half-an-hour after the other two women left, Norgrove was filmed donning a pair of red gloves and going inside the back door, just after 2pm. Seconds later, the doorbell camera picked up banging sounds, screams for 18 seconds and inaudible shouting, as Ms Gordon was attacked inside.
Around 20 minutes later, Norgrove emerges outside the house – a blood stain visible on his right calf – and is filmed casually packing up his car, whistling as he does so.
Following the killing, Norgrove drove home and put his clothes in the washing machine before going to collect his daughter from school, arriving late. He then drove to his mother-in-law’s home and dumped the hammer in a shed and bloodied gloves and clothes in a bin beside the outbuilding. Prosecutor Earl Pinnock said the items were recovered after his mother-in-law later reflected on his brief visit after discovering Ms Gordon had been killed, and retraced his steps at her home.
Ms Gordon’s body was discovered by her best friend the following day.
The court was told the side-extension got off to a bad start when Norgrove struggled to secure a digger, meaning he ended up having to dig some of the foundations out by hand.
Cowboy builder Peter Norgrove has now been jailed for life for killing Sharon Gordon
Less than half-an-hour after the other two women left, Norgrove was filmed donning a pair of red gloves and going inside the back door. Pictured: With blood on trousers after murder
Seconds later, the doorbell camera picked up banging sounds, screams for 18 seconds and inaudible shouting, as Ms Gordon was attacked inside. Pictured: With blood on trousers after killing
Rubble can be seen outside Ms Gordon’s house ten months before she died
In an entry on 3 May 2022, almost a month after work started, Ms Gordon noted on her calendar: ‘Peter arrived late today, then popped out so it was never going to get done today.’
At the end of that month, he sent what she described as an ‘alarming’ text requesting a further £3,000. She replied pointing out that the work should have already been completed a week earlier according to his proposed schedule, yet had not gone beyond the foundation stage.
By that time Ms Gordon had paid him five out of the six scheduled payments towards the £29,000 agreed fee for the work, and it was ‘clear there was a steady reduction in her trust and confidence in him’.
Grandmother Ms Gordon would not allow him a key to enter her home on the three days a week when she was in the office, which Norgrove complained contributed to the delays. The court heard that work was also halted or slowed down by a requirement to get the work checked by a building inspector at different stages of the build, or by inclement weather.
By the end of January of 2023, their relationship had ‘soured further’, the prosecutor said.
Ms Gordon told Norgrove costs had now exceeded the agreed price, and asked him to reimburse her by the £473 amount she said she had overpaid.
Wolverhampton Crown Court heard Ms Gordon was also a Jehovah’s Witness and belonged to the same fellowship as her killer, although the two had not met before at the church
Having completed his work for the day, Norgrove can be seen packing away at around 2pm
Several minutes later the killer can be seen putting on a pair of gloves after working for almost four and a half hours
Mr Pinnock said the ‘pattern of irregular attendance, dissatisfaction and mutual distrust continued into the summer.’
Just over a fortnight before Norgrove killed her, the court heard Ms Gordon sent him a long WhatsApp message ‘lamenting the amount of time he had been taking on two-month extension, which she attributed in a large part to his ‘lax timekeeping.’
On the day of her death last July, Ms Gordon had messaged Norgrove about a previous exchange between them over a £100 radiator he had agreed to pay for, after damaging it during installation.
After killing accounts assistant Ms Gordon, father-of-three Norgrove went home and carried on his family life as normal. That evening, the Norgroves went to the Kingdom Hall in Dudley, where he led part of the service for those dialling in on Zoom.
A post mortem examination found that Ms Gordon suffered fractures to her skull. She died of traumatic brain injuries caused by repeated blows to the head.
Balbir Singh, defending, denied that there was significant planning in the commission of the offence and described Norgrove as the ‘perfect family man, husband and father’ who was ‘full of regret and remorse’ The court heard the defendant’s wife Rebecca, 43, was standing by him.
He said Norgrove had no previous convictions, telling Judge Michael Chambers: ‘The person before you today is far, far removed from the kind of person you usually sentence for this offence.
Sentencing, Norgrove, of Sedgley, Dudley, to life with a minimum term of 15 years, the judge said he ‘quite deliberately’ took the hammer and gloves to her home in order to carry out the attack.
After 20 minutes Norgrove leaves the house clutching what appears to be a bag and carrying it on to the drive
He then calmly packs it into his car before going back to the garden and continuing to clear away his work
He told the defendant: ‘You were angry because she had continued to criticise you for chronic delays and poor workmanship on what was a relatively simple extension.’
There was no answer at Norgrove’s semi-detached home this afternoon.
A neighbour told the Daily Mail: ‘We were shocked to hear what had happened.
‘We have no idea why he did this, it’s awful and incomprehensible.
‘They are a nice family and good neighbours.
‘Rebecca has been staying on and off with her parents recently.
‘They have three children who all go to the local school. It’s all so desperately sad and difficult to understand.’