Jehovah's Witness Peter Norgrove, 43, had retrained as a builder after losing his job in environmental health at a local authority during the pandemic, before taking his first job at Sharon Gordan's home in Dudley, West Midlands.

But what should have been a six-to-eight week build turned into a 15-month nightmare which culminated in Norgrove repeatedly beating customer Sharon Gordon, also a Jehovah's Witness, over the head with a hammer last July.

Sentencing him to serve a minimum of 15 years, Judge Michael Chambers KC told Norgrove that he was angry because Ms Gordon criticised him over 'chronic delays and workmanship'

Sharon Gordon, 58, also a Jehovah's Witness was beaten to death with a hammer at her home in Dudley

A judge who jailed him for life on Wednesday was told Norgrove agreed to build the ground-floor extension for £29,000 - a £3,000 discount on his original quote – in return for using the project as a vehicle to market his talents in his new career.

Security cameras at the accounts assistant's home in Dudley, West Midlands, showed Norgrove casually whistling to himself after the attack as he packed up his car, and calmly tidied the rear patio of the semi-detached home.

The pair had been introduced by a mutual friend at the Kingdom Hall they both attended in the town, although killer and victim had not crossed paths previously at the church.

The court heard he then went to his mother-in-laws home, where he dumped bloodied rags and gloves in a bin and placed the lump hammer he used to kill Ms Gordon in the shed. That night, the court heard, The Norgroves and their three children attended the Kingdom Hall where the killer led a service.

Mrs Norgrove, a former estate agent who gave up work to care for their eldest child, who is autistic, said the couple met through friends on a night out, when both were already Jehovah's Witnesses.

Norgrove had moved to the West Midlands from Oxfordshire, where he grew up as one of five siblings. After school he worked as a baker for Sainsbury's in Oxford, before later moving in to the public sector.

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.

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.'

Norgrove was filmed donning a pair of red gloves and going inside the back door. He is pictured before the crime without blood on his trousers after putting on a pair of gloves

The doorbell camera picked up banging sounds, screams for 18 seconds and inaudible shouting, as Ms Gordon was attacked inside. 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

Rubble can be seen outside Ms Gordon's house ten months before she died

The extension was further delayed by Norgrove's 'lax timekeeping', short working days and inclement weather, while work was also halted on two occasions to satisfy a requirement for building inspectors to check on the project.

It is also understood that the victim went to Australia to visit her siblings at one point during the construction, and the court heard she would not give Norgrove a key to enter the property when she was absent.

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.

Prosecutor Earl Pinnock said that as the months went on it was 'clear there was a steady reduction in her trust and confidence in him', and 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 also messaged Norgrove about £100 he owed her for a radiator he had damaged.

Ms Gordon, 58, suffered at least eight blows to the head in what a judge described as a 'brutal and savage attack' at the foot of her staircase on July 20. Just after 2pm, Norgrove is seen donning a pair of red gloves and going inside the back door. Seconds later, the doorbell camera picked up banging sounds, screams for 18 seconds and inaudible shouting, as Ms Gordon, an accounts assistant, 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.

Sentencing him to serve a minimum of 15 years, Judge Michael Chambers KC told Norgrove: 'You were angry because she had continued to criticise you for your chronic delays and workmanship.'

The 'rights and wrongs' of the extension over-run, which was more than a year behind schedule, were not matters for the court to determine, the judge said.

He added: 'They do not provide you with any excuse, justification or mitigation for what you did.'In an interview with the BBC, Ms Gordon's daughter, Rhian Brown, described Norgrove as a 'wolf in sheep's clothing' who had used the 'security net' of being in the same congregation as his victim to 'hide behind' who he really was.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13034603/killer-cowboy-builder-wife-reveals-job.html