A serial burglar has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of two pensioners during break-ins in 1998, in a landmark double jeopardy case. Michael Weir, 53, from Hackney, was convicted at the Old Bailey 21 years after the killings.
Weir violently assaulted 78-year-old war veteran Leonard Harris and 83-year-old mother-of-three Rose Seferian during two burglaries five weeks apart in 1998. He stole a signet ring and gold watch from Mr Harris and ripped diamond rings from Ms Seferian's fingers.
Initially, connections between the two deaths were not made after police failed to match Weir's palm print to one recovered from Mr Harris's flat in East Finchley. Weir was originally found guilty of murdering Mr Harris in 1999, but his conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal the following year on a technicality.
He was retried under the double jeopardy law after new forensic evidence came to light. Prosecutors believe Weir is the first convicted man to be convicted twice for the same murder. Trial judge Mrs Justice McGowan told the jury they had made 'legal history'.
Jurors were told a palm print found on a window frame inside Ms Seferian's Kensington flat was not matched to Weir until 2017. By 2018 new DNA evidence had been obtained, and palm prints from both murder scenes were identified as Weir's.
