Minerva Estate, Bethnal Green, Tower Hamlets, London
Date
22 August 1993
Deaths
2
Victims
Anne Castle (aged 74) William Bryan (aged 71)
Perpetrators
Danville Neil
Motive
Financial motive
In 1993, elderly siblings Anne Castle and William Bryan were attacked and killed during a home invasion in London, England. The crime went unsolved for nearly three decades, when new DNA evidence led to a conviction in 2022.[1] Serial burglar Danville Neil was sentenced to life in prison for the killings.[2]
William Bryan, known as 'Bill', was a veteran of World War II.[1] He was invalided from the British Army in 1945.[2] Anne Castle, known as 'Annie', had been widowed in 1987.[3] She was a retired worker at the former Bethnal Green Hospital.[4] She had five children, 13 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.[5] The siblings lived together in East London.[6] They shared a flat on the Minerva Estate in Bethnal Green.[7]
Crime
On the night of 22 August 1993, neighbours heard screams which suggested a "prolonged burglary and attack".[8] The next day the police found the bodies of the two pensioners at their home in Bethnal Green.[9] Castle was slumped in an armchair and Bryan was lying on the floor.[8] The robe from his dressing gown was used to tie his feet, and his binoculars strap was used to bind his hands.[10]
Their home had been ransacked and valuables had been stolen, including jewellery.[8][11] Two wedding rings and two diamond rings had been pulled from Castle's hand.[2] The siblings had been beaten to death during the robbery.[12] Investigators believed that Castle died from a heart attack while her brother died from suffocation.[13] The killings had apparently occurred during a "botched burglary".[14] The perpetrator had failed to find £4,000 in cash which had been stashed in the flat, some of which was hidden in socks.[15]
The case went cold, the first development being a review in 2000 which led to DNA being obtained from the binocular strap.[16] The forensic technology at the time was not advanced enough for a positive identification.[17] The case was covered in a Series 8 episode of the television programme Most Evil Killers.[18] New DNA techniques led to charges being brought in 2022.[8]
Trial
On 1 October 2020 police officers carried out a search warrant at the Lewisham home of Danville Neil and he was arrested.[19] He denied all charges.[20] Neil's DNA was found on a strap used to tie Bryan's hands.[8] Neil was a serial burglar who had been convicted for 15 burglaries between 1973 and 1998.[21] He had been jailed for two violent burglaries and released on licence in August 1992.[22] Neil had served for offences committed between June and August 1984.[20] His DNA was on the national database due to his prior convictions.[23] The defence argued that the DNA had been transferred to the binoculars at a car boot sale where they had hypothetically been bought.[8]
Neil was convicted of the murder and manslaughter in the case, and in November 2022 he was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 32 years.[1] Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said in her ruling: "you dodged justice for nearly 30 years, now justice has caught up with you".[24] In 2024, his appeal against his conviction was rejected.[2]
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