A 66-year-old man who murdered a convicted paedophile after allegedly seeking to exploit him for money has been jailed for life.
Anthony Gardiner, who was already in jail for a robbery, pleaded guilty to murder after admitting to prison guards that he attacked John Coxon at the 76-year-old’s home in Stonehouse, stamping on his head.
Coxon, who had Alzheimer’s and was visited by carers twice daily due to advanced type 2 diabetes which had impacted his health, was known locally to be a paedophile with multiple convictions for posessing indecent images of children.
Bristol Crown Court was told that Gardiner knew Coxon had breached his sexual harm prevention order in 2017 by speaking to a child who was known to Gardiner as he passed her home. While there was no evidence of the conversation being of a sexual nature, he was banned from having unsupervised contact with children, the court heard.
Gloucestershire Police said Gardiner – whose previous convictions include robbery, wounding with intent, assault, battery, shoplifting, drug and driving offences – had exploited Coxon for financial gain.
In 2021, Gardiner told Coxon that he wanted a reward for finding his wallet, and took him to Coventry Building Society to ask for £400 or £500. However, staff alerted police and Coxon was taken home.
On 12 January 2022, Coxon was found on the floor of his kitchen in Park Road by one of his carers and was taken to hospital with facial injuries, where a scan revealed that he had a bleed on the brain from a traumatic brain injury. This led to infections and his cause of death was ultimately kidney failure.
Gardiner was arrested – prior to Coxon’s death on 25 March – after telling people that he had gone to the paedophile’s home and stamped on his head, police said. His trainers were seized and forensic tests revealed they had Coxon’s blood on them.
open image in galleryBristol Crown Court heard Gardiner pleaded guilty to murder in December 2024 (PA) (PA Archive)
While he initially denied being responsible for the assault in a police interview, he later wrote to police from prison saying he wanted to “come clean” and asked to be interviewed again. He also carved “I am a n**** killer” into his dinner place, and kept a newspaper article about Coxon’s death in his cell.
Gardiner later wrote a letter to police fully accepting what he had done, and he then pleaded guilty in court.
It was said in court that while Gardiner – previously of Daniels Road, Stroud – wanted to cause serious harm to Coxon in what was a pre-meditated attack, there was no evidence that he set out with an intention to kill him.
The court was told that it was unclear why Gardiner attacked Coxon that day as he had known about his prior convictions and lived close to him for some years. But he told the court: “That Mr Coxon had 474 images of children on his computer. I’m glad he is dead.”
open image in galleryAnthony Gardiner was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years (Gloucestershire Police)
A statement by Coxon’s brother was read to the court, which said that he had “done good things in his life” including caring for elderly relatives, and that no one should be subjected to the torment faced by the 76-year-old in his own home.
The prosecution described how Gardiner had treated Coxon’s death “as a joke” and “laughed” when talking to family members about it.
Addressing Gardiner, who represented himself in court after choosing to have no legal team, Judge Picton said: “It would appear you went there with an intention of giving Mr Coxon ‘a beating’. You spoke of having stamped all over Mr Coxon‘s face and expressed intent to do that again in the future.
“You carried out a brutal attack on a frail and vulnerable man in his own home. You left him lying on the floor with serious injuries. You appear to celebrate the fact that you killed another human being. You are a highly dangerous man.”
He sentenced Gardiner to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 24 years. Due to the guilty plea, this was reduced to 20 years before he is eligible for release.
Additional reporting by PA