Cage fighter is jailed for 35 years for murdering his girlfriend

Cage fighter is jailed for minimum of 35 years for murdering his teacher girlfriend and trying to kill her 15-year-old lover with a meat cleaver

  • Paul Robson, 50, murdered Caroline Kayll, 47, at her home last year on the run
  • Robson was previously sentenced to 10 years for drugs and firearms offences
  • Ms Kayll had 60 injuries and died from blunt force to her head in the attack 
  • Her underage lover, 15, suffered 45 injuries including stab wounds and bites 

Paul Robson, 50, was in breach of his prison licence when he murdered his ex-partner

A cage fighter who beat his teacher ex-girlfriend to death and tried to kill her schoolboy lover – who he was blackmailing her over – has been jailed for a minimum of 35 years.

Paul Robson, 50, subjected his former partner Caroline Kayll, 47, to 60 injuries during the attack in her home in Linton, Northumberland, last year.

He knocked her to the floor and then repeatedly kicked her in the head while wearing heavy work boots.  

Branded ‘a cruel and calculating coward’ by the prosecution, Robson then took a pair of scissors to her lifeless body, cut off her hair and slashed her buttocks. 

During the frenzied attack Robson stabbed and bit Mrs Kayll’s 15-year-old lover, who cannot be named, 45 times but the teenager miraculously survived.

Mr Justice Lavender said “this is almost a double murder” and jailed Robson for life.

The judge told him: “When you found out Mrs Kayll had started an inappropriate and unlawful relationship with a boy you used the threat of exposing their relationship to make her pay you £29,000 in eight instalments between November 1 and November 11 2020.

“Then, on November 15 you went to her home and when she let you in you grabbed her, causing her bruising to her arms. She fell or was pushed to the floor and you kicked her repeatedly in the face and head with your steel toe cap boots, fracturing bones in her face and causing cardiac arrest and fatal brain injuries.

“In effect, you used those boots as fatal weapons. Not content with that, you slashed her buttocks with a knife and sprayed ammonia on her.”

The judge said the youth suffered “gruesome” injuries and that the boy’s mother has described his ordeal as a “living nightmare” that he and his family will never recover from.

Robson stole their phones – later updating Mrs Kayll’s social media while he was on the run, Newcastle Crown Court was told.

It was a tragic end to Robson and Mrs Kayll’s relationship, which began with a secret affair when he was serving ten years for drugs and firearms offences and she was working as a prison teacher.

Caroline Kayll, who died in hospital after attack in Linton, Northumberland on November 15

Instead of answering police questions, Robson prepared a statement to say he was ‘broken’ by her death and that someone attacked him when he visited her home. Pictured, during a police interview last year

When he was freed on licence they moved in together, but after they split up he discovered her illegal activities with the child and began blackmailing her for £29,000.

Robson should not have been free to kill after he was recalled to prison in March 2019 because he breached his release terms, but the authorities could not find him.

Instead, Newcastle Crown Court was told on November 15, 2020, he travelled 150miles from Glasgow to her home.

Video shows Robson skulking around Mrs Kayll’s home. He later messaged one of her friends to say: ‘I went up there and they are cuddled up on the sofa, watching TV.’ 

He had with him a locksmith bar, a magnetic GPS car tracker, screwdrivers, pliers, a wrench and the ammonia which he kept in a washing-up liquid bottle.  

The jury heard as Robson left the scene he told a neighbour, who he knew was a nurse, that he had ‘done something and she’s in a bad way’.

The killer then went on the run for six days before he was located by police in Glasgow and arrested on suspicion of murder.

Instead of answering police questions, Robson prepared a statement to say he was ‘broken’ by her death and that someone attacked him when he visited her home. 

Robson, of Wallsend, North Tyneside, denied murder, attempted murder and blackmailing his ex-partner. Today he was found guilty of all three charges. 

The jurors were shown pictures of Robson stopping off on his way from Glasgow

The ‘very harrowing evidence’ jurors heard led to the judge excusing them from further service for ten years. 

During his trial, career criminal Robson told the court he first met Mrs Kayll when imprisoned in HMP Northumberland in 2005 and it was then that their clandestine relationship began .

Robson was further jailed for 10 years in 2014 for drugs and firearms offences and returned to HMP Northumberland where he was re-united with Mrs Kayll.

At this time she was employed as a teacher in the education department of the prison and the pair re-ignited their secret affair.

Robson was released in 2018 but this time their relationship did not stop and they soon moved in with each other at the property in Linton.

The pair remained together until October 2020 but separated when Robson became aware of Mrs Kayll’s relationship with the teenager. 

The court was told how Robson then took the opportunity to blackmail Mrs Kayll, threatening to ‘ruin’ her if she did not pay him.

In a bid to ensure his silence a desperate Mrs Kayll transferred £29,000 to him – but just two weeks later she was dead.

Barrister Richard Bennett told the court Robson was jailed in 2014 for a total of 10 years for drugs and firearms offences, and that while at HMP Northumberland he gained ‘trusted’ status and worked in the education department, where Mrs Kayll was a teacher.

He was released on licence in November 2018, but was then recalled to prison in March 2019 because he had breached his licence, the court heard.

‘Following this, Paul Robson was unlawfully at large,’ Mr Bennett said.

After the murder police found an electronic copy of Robson’s CV on a memory stick, in which he said he was a ex-professional fighter and amateur powerlifter who wanted to become an assessor and verifier.

The court heard Ms Kayll met her husband Ian Kayll in 2002 after she started work at HMP Northumberland, where he was a manager.  

It is said he drove for three hours from Glasgow to Linton, having bought a locksmith’s bar, a magnetic GPS car tracker, screwdrivers, pliers, a wrench and ammonia

Here Robson is pictured with a drink bottle that he picked up on journey, Newcastle Crown Court heard

They remained on good terms after they separated and would still meet up every few weeks.

Giving evidence, he admitted he heard rumours she was seen with Robson, but she denied the relationship.

Teenage lover’s terror as he escaped murder 

In a video recorded interview, the boy said he was in an upstairs bedroom about to have a cigarette when a man, who was a stranger to him, came in, jumped on his back and stabbed him.

He told detectives: ‘He was on my back, I was face down on the bed.

‘He was pushing me down and stabbing.’

The youth said he tried to get his attacker off him and added: ‘He said ‘wait there, don’t move or I will kill you’ then comes back with a bigger blade.’

He said what happened next was ‘the same thing again but more of a struggle’.

The teenager said he was told to go downstairs with his attacker. There he saw Mrs Kayll lying on the floor, face down.

He added: ‘He cuts her hair off and he was doing stuff to her.

‘He gets another blade.’

The teen said his attacker had taken a meat cleaver from a kitchen drawer and added: ‘He hits my head, twice.’

He told the court: ‘I asked Caroline if the rumours were true and she categorically said no and got quite upset I had asked her.

‘She really enjoyed her job working with the children and got on well with the staff.

‘Caroline had a good lifestyle, she worked very hard for what she had.’

A pathologist at the court told jurors Ms Kayll had 60 injuries and died from blunt force to her head.   

The boy was found to have suffered 45 injuries, having been stabbed, chopped and slashed, he had bite marks to his arm and defensive injuries to his hands, the court has heard.     

Robson claimed in a defence case statement that he was attacked from behind while talking to Ms Kayll.  

He said he came round from unconsciousness to find the youth standing over her as she lay motionless on the floor of her house last November.

But pathologist Dr Nigel Cooper, asked if Robson’s injuries match up with Robson’s own account, replied: ‘No they don’t.

‘Usually the victim has injuries worse than the assailant. There’s an enormous discrepancy in the number of injuries between (the boy) and Mr Robson. They are consistent with Robson being the assailant and (the youth) being the victim.’ 

Dr Cooper told the court Ms Kayll had a ‘catastrophic brain injury’. 

As well as multiple areas of bruising to various parts of her head, face, and body, arms and legs, there were cuts to both buttocks.  She also had fractures to both cheekbones.

She suffered multiple fractures to her eye socket and nose.  

Her brain was found to have been badly damaged by a lack of blood and oxygen. It was also severely swollen, there was nerve fibre damage and a small amount of bleeding. 

Shortly after this picture was taken the powerfully-built defendant was seen on CCTV in heavy boots ‘prowling’ outside her house, the jury heard

Pictured: Police at the scene in November

Referring to the neuropathologist’s report, Dr Cooper said: ‘He says severe force has been applied to Caroline’s head, including an action causing a violent rotational movement of the head.

‘The brain has twisted violently inside the head to cause the fibre damage.’

Referring to causation of the brain injuries, Dr Cooper said a pathologist believes someone kicked or stamped on her head.

He added that it would require a ‘severe’ level of force. 

Prison love triangle of the murdered teacher 

Murder victim Caroline Kayll told ‘white lies’ about the illicit relationship she had with a prisoner and the illegal one she started with an underage boy, jurors heard.

The 47-year-old, married at the time to a senior prison officer, started a clandestine relationship with Paul Robson when he was serving at HMP Northumberland where she taught.

She had previously worked as a social worker, a police officer in Cumbria, a prison officer, took on a teaching role behind bars, then moved into a school role, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

She met her husband Ian Kayll in 2002 after she started work at HMP Northumberland, where he was a security manager.

Robson was to claim he had a secret relationship with her during two jail stints, the second of which continued after he was released.

Mrs Kayll remained on good terms with her husband after they separated and they would still meet up every few weeks.

He heard a rumour she had been seen with Robson and said: ‘I asked Caroline if the rumours were true and she categorically said no and got quite upset I had asked her.’

After Robson broke up with her, she started an illegal sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy, claiming he was her godson if anyone asked.

Nicholas Lumley QC, prosecuting, acknowledged she told ‘white lies’ about these illicit relationships and that she had made ‘some life choices that not all of us in this room would make’.

A keen horse-rider, she had two horses at a farm and a border terrier called Boxer who was always by her side.

She owned her own home and pick-up truck but after paying Robson £29,000 in blackmail after he threatened to expose her, her savings were gone.

Robson was convicted of murdering his ex-partner after a trial at Newcastle Crown Court. 

Meanwhile, Dr Cooper said the youth suffered three stab wounds, 19 slashing or chopping injuries, a chop wound to his face with an underlying fracture, seven scratches or similar marks which may or may not have been caused by a sharp weapon and superficial puncture wounds from something used repeatedly, possibly scissors.

The teenager also had four bite marks to his arms and four blunt force injuries.

There were other indistinct injuries and injuries to his hands, including to tendons, which could have been defensive.

Robson claimed he was struck from behind while speaking to Ms Kayll.   

He said he remembered someone throttling him but didn’t know how long he was unconscious and came round feeling dazed.

The statement said he saw the youth standing over Ms Kayll, who was lying motionless on the floor.

His defence statement added: ‘He said he chased (the youth) who ran upstairs. The defendant says (he) was in a rage, calling Caroline a liar and a c*** and he was trying to stab the defendant.

‘At one point he stabbed with such force his hand slipped down the hilt onto the blade.’

The statement went on to say Robson disarmed the youth of the knife but that the youth was in a rage and forced him out of an ensuite bathroom and into the bedroom and that he ended up on top of Robson and was saying ‘she’s a f****** liar’.

It added: ‘He was intent on driving the scissors into the defendant’s face.

‘He bit him and managed to wrestle the scissors from him. He accepts stabbing him a number of times to subdue him.’

The statement went on: ‘The defendant dragged him downstairs. He then went to Caroline Kayll and realised a lot of her hair had been cut off.

‘The defendant attempted mouth to mouth but her mouth was full of blood.

‘He sprayed her face with a hose to clear away the hair and wash away the blood.

‘He tried mouth to mouth and put her in the recovery position.’

Robson then claimed the youth ‘came at him again’ with a meat cleaver but that he got the better of him and disarmed him.

He accepted he struck him a number of times with the knife but insisted he inflicted the injuries lawfully in self-defence.

Following the case, senior investigating officer at Northumbria Police, Detective Inspector Graeme Barr, welcomed the guilty verdicts.

He said: ‘This is one of the most violent offences I have investigated in my policing career and I welcome the guilty verdicts of the jury.

‘Paul Robson has been fuelled by a jealous rage and attended his former address that night with one thing on his mind.

‘His attack on Caroline and his teenage victim was pre-meditated and demonstrated horrendous levels of violence.

‘There is no doubt he wanted to kill or permanently disfigure both of his victims. He succeeded in killing his former partner and has left his teenage victim scarred for life.

‘Not only that, but he spent the days that followed trying to avoid police before attempting to pin Caroline’s murder on a vulnerable, teenage boy.

‘Those actions have put the teenage victim, his family and Caroline’s family through the ordeal of a trial and I want to praise the bravery they have shown throughout these proceedings.

‘I know that for them no punishment will be enough, but today’s verdicts do mean that Paul Robson will be handed a life sentence.

‘There is a very real chance he will never experience freedom again and I hope that can bring some justice to his victims.’ 

Robson was remanded in custody until Mr Justice Lavender will pass sentence at 2pm on Wednesday at Newcastle Crown Court. 

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