Reporter I was last person to contact him
– just 24 minutes af ter writing to me. I felt sick. After stabbing Adrian more than 30 times in the hal lway of his £ 640,000 home, a blood- soaked Michael Danaher posed for a chi l l ing sel f ie before casually strolling away. A few hours af ter leaving Adrian to bleed to death, Danaher, a 51- year- old loner, of Peterborough, put the first-edition copy of the Kenneth Grahame classic he had stolen on eBay for the knockdown price of £2000.
After searching Danaher’s flat, police uncovered a spreadsheet containing targets for theft, robbery and ransom demands which included model Kate Moss and author Jeffrey Archer.
Further investigation revealed the heavily indebted killer had also searched online for the homes of Simon Cowell and TV presenter Michael Parkinson.
Thames Valley police also discovered that, two weeks before Adrian’s murder, Danaher had tried to carry out a raid at the London home of wealthy investor Adrian Beecroft. He had posed as a delivery driver and tried to force his way in past Beecroft’s wife Jacqueline. But he was forced to flee when she shouted to her staff to call the police.
During his trial at Oxford Crown Court in October 2016, the jury took just two hours to find Danaher unanimously guilty of murder and he was sentenced to a minimum of 34 years in jail.
Although as a journalist you write about murders, you never think you’ll inadvertently become caught up in one.
My heart goes out to Adrian’s family and I hope they take some comfort in the legacy he has left behind through his writing.