Roger Kearney to appeal against murder conviction

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Roger Kearney to appeal against Paula Poolton murder conviction

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THE so-called Body in the Boot Killer has launched an appeal to clear his name.

Roger Kearney, 57, was convicted at Winchester Crown Court last month of the savage murder of Saints steward Paula Poolton, with whom he had been having a passionate three-month affair.

She had been knifed eight times and dumped in the boot of her car in October 2008.

Following a major police search, her body was discovered 11 days later in Duncan Road, Park Gate, just yards from Swanwick railway station.

Today solicitor Jonathan Driver confirmed Kearney had lodged an appeal against his conviction – but refused to say on what grounds.

At Kearney’s trial – where he pleaded not guilty to Paula’s murder – jurors heard that she yearned to start a new life with him.

But Kearney, a divorced father of two who was in a long-term relationship with another woman, wanted to dispose of her before being exposed as a love rat.


Paula, 40, of Course Park Road, Titchfield, met Kearney when working as Saints stewards at the St Mary’s Stadium.

Kearney, of Painswick Close, Sarisbury Green, was jailed for life and told he would serve a minimum term of 15 years behind bars.

He had always denied any involvement in Paula’s killing but a jury of six men and six women did not believe him and returned a guilty verdict after deliberating for 12 hours.

During the six-week trial jurors were shown CCTV footage that showed Kearney leaving for work at the Royal Mail depot in Eastleigh half an hour earlier than he told police and driving off in the opposite direction.

After the case, Paula’s parents, Jenny and Phillip Cross, spoke of the continuing pain of their loss and the terrible manner in which their daughter had died.

Mr Cross said: “The thought of her dying in the way she did is unbearable. She was my little girl.”

Paula’s husband Ricky said he hoped one day to be able to forgive her for having the affair but insisted he could never forgive the man who brutally killed her.