A brutal killer who strangled a woman in her flat

A brutal killer who strangled a woman in her flat was snared 18 years later after advances in DNA technology, the Old Bailey heard today (TUES).

Anthony Ruark, 41, battered and sexually assaulted his on-off girlfriend Jacqueline Poole before throttling her with a ligature, the jury was told.

The ligature was pulled so tight it cut into her throat.

Although Ruark was arrested and quizzed shortly after the murder in 1983, he was released without charge through lack of evidence.

But last year, scientists used the latest developments in forensic testing to re-analyse samples taken from the scene at the time.

And the tests provided compelling evidence that Ruark was the killer, it is claimed.

Barmaid Mrs Poole, 25, had a substance containing his DNA under her fingernails, possibly pieces of skin scratched from his hands as she desperately tried to defend herself.

There was also a sample of fluid on her body which allegedly matched Ruark.

Prosecutor William Boyce, QC, said: ‘The evidence that Ruark is the murderer is overwhelming.

‘His DNA was on her body and under her fingernails.

This evidence was obtained against a background of really dramatic advances in forensic science.

‘Analysis of the old samples was carried out using modern, hi-tech equipment.

‘These showed that Ruark’s body samples were on the deceased and that, in combination with other evidence, brings him here.

‘

The court heard Mrs Poole was found dead at her flat in Ruislip, west London, by police on February 13, 1983.

She had been attacked, molested, and then killed with a garrotte.

The murderer had then fled with a substantial amount of her jewellery.

Mr Boyce told the court: ‘Mrs Poole had been beaten up, sexually assaulted, and strangled by means of a ligature.

‘A cord was tied round her neck and pulled tight so that she died.

‘Death would not have been instantaneous it would have taken tens of seconds.

”

It is claimed that Ruark, who now lives in the West Country, had a girlfriend at the time but would occasionally have sex with Mrs Poole.

On February 11 – the night she probably died – he claimed he was in a pub and a nightclub with his partner and had not seen Mrs Poole.

But when he was re-arrested last year, he changed his story and said he did visit her that evening, and had sex with her.

Mr Boyce said Ruark still denied murdering Mrs Poole, implying that somebody else visited her after he had left the flat in Lakeside Close, Ruislip.

But witnesses claim he had scratch marks on the back of his hands that evening, and it is alleged there are elements of the sex attack which link it to the defendant.

Ruark, of Hanstone Close, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, denies murdering Mrs Poole, between February 10 and February 14, 1983.

Mrs Poole, was born Jacqueline Hunt in Slough, in October 1957.

She was working as a barmaid at Whispers Nightclub in Chesham, Bucks, at the time of death.

The trial continues and is expected to last up to a month.

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