Former lifeguard found guilty of contract killing

A FORMER Teignmouth lifeguard who turned contract killer to fund his expatriate lifestyle has been told he is likely to die in jail after he was found guilty of murder yesterday.

Hitman Paul Cryne (

But Cryne, who still holds a Guinness underwater swimming world record, was caught because of a crime he had committed more than three decades earlier.

He is due to be sentenced today but after yesterday’s verdict Judge Jeremy Roberts told the Old Bailey: “He may be right in thinking that he’ll die in prison.”

Cryne left few clues for detectives when he carried out the killing of the 52-year-old in Surrey in December 2007, the Old Bailey heard.

Mrs Birchwood was strangled and left “cruelly trussed up” with parcel tape and electrical cord on her bed at her home in Ashtead, Surrey.

Cryne — cleared in 2005 of a murder in Thailand — had been hired to kill her by her ex-husband, who he knew from the country’s expatriate community.

Graham Birchwood, 54, stood to gain £475,000 on his ex-wife’s death and went shopping in Epsom to create an alibi for the time of the murder.

At first the plan seemed to work as DNA traces found on Mrs Birchwood’s hand, and on the roll of tape used to bind her, did not match up to any on the national police database.

But the breakthrough came when a sample found on the lip of a cup from Birchwood’s mother’s house in Banstead — where Cryne had stayed in the build-up to the killing — tallied with those at the scene.

Also on the cup were fingerprints, matching police records from 1972, when Cryne was jailed for seven years for holding his girlfriend hostage.

Detectives were able to trace him to Thailand’s expatriate community, where they put him under surveillance and took a DNA sample from a cup in a cafe, before extraditing him to face trial.

Mark Dennis QC, prosecuting, said: “The police were able to unravel the plot, thereby frustrating the otherwise perfect murder.

“This was a deliberate killing. It was an execution.

“It soon became clear the violent assault on Sharon Birchwood had not been the result of a chance encounter with an unknown intruder.

“There were no signs of forced entry, no sign of any property having been stolen and no sign any drawers or cupboards had been opened. There was no sign of a struggle.

“The victim had suddenly been taken completely by surprise in her own home and incapacitated almost immediately.

“These were the actions of someone who had come to the premises to kill Sharon Birchwood, something achieved with ruthless efficiency.”

The court heard Birchwood had needed the money tied up in his ex-wife’s bungalow and life insurance policy to pay off debts built up after a string of business failures in Thailand.

Cryne, who boasted he could incapacitate a man with a single blow, offered a solution.

The former bodyguard was originally from the Manchester area and had later lived in Teignmouth before moving out to Thailand.

Divorced Cryne, who lived a flamboyant lifestyle in the Thai resort of Pattaya, including relationships with a string of women, ran out of money. By 2007 he had debts of £11,000.

In 2005 he was cleared of murdering expatriate Robert Henry, shot six times.

Mr Dennis said Birchwood needed someone “prepared to do such a deed without being noticed, who could disappear without ever attracting the attention of the police”.

Cryne flew in from Thailand at the end of October 2007 before going to stay with Birchwood at his mother’s house.

Two days before the killing he left, giving the impression he was going to stay with friends in the West Country — in fact he did not go far and was a short distance away from Ashtead.

He murdered Mrs Birchwood shortly after she returned from a shopping trip in Guildford and within three hours was at Heathrow to await his flight back to Thailand the next day.

Birchwood thought that all he would now have to do would be to “keep a cool head” and cooperate with police.

He delayed for three days before going round to find the body and calling 999 and was standing outside with a cup of coffee in his hand when the ambulance arrived.

“Sharon Birchwood was found lying fully clothed on her bed, cruelly trussed up,” said Mr Dennis.

“She had been bound and gagged using a combination of parcel tape and electrical cord. Her ankles had been tightly bound together by tape, as had her wrists.”

Mrs Birchwood’s wrists had been pulled up to her face and she had been gagged.

“Electrical cord had been repeatedly wrapped around her head and a small metal handle had been used to tighten those bindings acting in effect as a tourniquet.”

As yesterday’s verdict was read out, Cryne frowned in disbelief before shaking his head and muttering to himself.

Detective Chief Inspector Maria Woodall said afterwards: “Sharon lived a quiet, harmless, ordinary lifestyle, burdened by ill health and living in rather poor conditions with little social life and no known enemies. She was totally betrayed by the greed of the man she had married and been devoted to for 30 years.

“Birchwood made the callous decision that his ex-wife must die and then set about a ruthless plot which he hoped would distance himself from this evil crime. He involved Cryne as part of this devious plan.”

Birchwood was jailed for life with a minimum term of 32 years in June last year after being convicted of murder at Croydon Crown Court.