. Stephen Grimwood, age 64, of Shipfield, Norwich, was today (Thursday, 22 December 2022) convicted by a jury of nine men and three women at Norwich Crown Court of the murder of Mark Franklin in Norwich on 26 April 2022. Reaching a unanimous decision, the jury took little more than 90 minutes to reach a verdict. Grimwood had denied murder. The court heard how Mr Franklin’s GP surgery raised the alarm on Friday 29 April 2022 after he failed to show up for three appointments, respond to text messages and telephone calls or answer the door when a member of staff visited his home. Police discovered Mr Franklin lying on the floor of the living room of his home in Appleyard Crescent, Norwich, with a severe head injury shortly after 9.30pm the same day. Officers initially thought the injury had been caused by a firearm. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A murder investigation was launched. A Home Office post-mortem established the cause of death as a traumatic head injury. A pathologist confirmed he had experienced a devastating blunt force trauma to the top of his head and had defensive injuries to his hands. During the trial, the court heard how CCTV footage showed Grimwood leaving Mr Franklin’s home at 4.49am on 26 April 2021 and withdrawing £500 from the victim’s account using a cash machine. Grimwood was first arrested on Saturday 30 April and released the following day on police bail. He was arrested again on 11 May 2022 and charged with Mr Franklin’s murder on 12 May 2022. During their investigation, detectives discovered that Mr Franklin had lived in Appleyard Crescent all his life. His neighbours described him as someone who “kept himself to himself” and said they hadn’t seen him for several days before his body was discovered. Two witnesses told officers that Grimwood visited Mr Franklin’s house twice a week and they believed he owed him money – one witness said Grimwood had refused to settle a debt of £3,500. CCTV enquiries confirmed Mr Franklin hadn’t left his address since 6.30pm on 25 April. A ‘sorry we missed you card’ dated 3.03pm on 26 April 2022 was also discovered by officers at his address. The court heard how bloody footprints were discovered on the kitchen floor of Mark’s home, and innovative forensic analysis of Grimwood’s shoes showed traces of the Mr Franklin’s brain and blood. Detectives also discovered inconsistencies in Grimwood’s account of the days leading up to Mark’s murder. During police interviews, Grimwood claimed he visited Mark for 20 minutes from about 5.30am on Tuesday 25 April when CCTV footage showed he had been at the property for an hour between 3.48am and 4.48am. CCTV also captured Grimwood at Mr Franklin’s house four times between 3.58am and 5.30am on Wednesday 26 April, yet he claimed he hadn’t visited his friend since Tuesday 25 April. He also lied about making cash withdrawals, telling detectives he had withdrawn £500 in cash from Mark’s bank account, with his permission, from a cash machine on Aylsham Road on Monday 25 April 2022. CCTV retrieved by officers showed he had made the cash withdrawal at 4.56am on Tuesday 26 April 2022. Later that same day he bought back his iPhone from a pawn shop in the city. A pair of white trainers Grimwood claimed to have purchased from a supermarket a fortnight before the murder had in fact been bought the day before his arrest. Grimwood’s clothing captured on CCTV footage at the time of the killing has never been recovered. In police interviews, Grimwood denied murdering Mark and borrowing money from him, apart from a £300 loan a few years’ ago. Norfolk Police’s Detective Inspector Lewis Craske, who led the murder investigation, said: “This was a violent attack that was so ferocious it appeared to officers who discovered Mark’s body that it may have been a shooting. It’s impossible for most of us to even imagine committing such terrible violence to another person. “It’s very sad that Mark’s life ended with such brutality and at the hands of someone he considered to be his friend – in fact, Grimwood was perhaps one of the few people who had been a consistent presence in his life over several years. Today’s result will never bring Mark back, but I hope it goes some way to ending this awful ordeal for his family.” Grimwood is due to be sentenced on 3 January 2023.