Builder Peter Norgrove murdered churchgoer at her Dudley home after working on her extension

A builder who battered a customer to death following a row over work on her extension is facing life in jail after admitting murder.

Peter Norgrove, 43, killed Sharon Gordon, 58, at her home on Bromford Road in Dudley, on July 20 this year. A court heard she was found dead by the stairs at the property after suffering eight blows to the head, possibly with a hammer.

Norgrove was a recently qualified bricklayer who had met Mrs Gordon through mutual friends at the same church they both attended. He had undertaken extension work to her property which had taken many months and encountered several problems along the way.

On the afternoon of July 21 concerned friends called at Mrs Gordon’s home after she failed to turn up for work. They found her with severe head injuries, which had been inflicted the day before, and she was could not be saved.

Norgrove, from Sedgley, was interviewed and told police he had left the property the previous day. However blood-stained items were found in a wheelie bin at a family address and further searches revealed a hammer secreted in a shed. Norgove previously denied murder but changed his plea at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Monday (December 4).

Detective Inspector Damian Forrest, of West Midlands Police, said: “This appears to have been a disagreement over work carried out at the victim’s property which has escalated into violence.

“I am pleased the defendant has pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and spared Mrs. Gordon’s family the ordeal of a trial.” Norgrove will be sentenced on January 26 next year.