Liam Naylor: Ex-Jeremy Kyle guest still has over 23 years to serve for murdering 'lovely' Barnsley grandma

A former Jeremy Kyle guest still has more than 23 years to serve behind bars, after he was found guilty of one of the most ‘brutal’ and ‘abhorrent’ murders a South Yorkshire Police detective had ever seen.

April 2024 marks 10 years since 75-year-old Doreen Walker - known to her family as ‘Dotty’ - was killed at her home in Birkwood Avenue, Cudworth, Barnsley.

Liam Naylor throttled and stabbed Mrs Walker over 40 times so he could steal her £104 pension, which he spent on a night out in Barnsley and a McDonald’s.

Following her shocking death, neighbours described Mrs Walker, a mother-of-two and a grandmother-of-five, as ‘a lovely lady, salt of the earth’ and a ‘typical Barnsley lady’ who ‘was always pleasant, and quiet in some respects’.

Naylor, then aged just 23, was charged with Mrs Walker’s murder in the days following her death, and a Sheffield Crown Court jury subsequently returned a unanimous guilty verdict, after rejecting his claims that he was acting in self-defence.

Speaking to The Star after Naylor was convicted, the senior officer in the case told The Star the bloody killing was one of the most ‘brutal' and ‘abhorrent' he had dealt with in 29 years.

Detective Superintendent Richard Fewkes said: "What was going through his head we will never know. He committed one of the most brutal murders I have ever seen. It was a savage and unprovoked assault.

"The account he put forward – that he was attacking in self defence – was ludicrous. The evidence against him was overwhelming."

Naylor claimed the 5ft 3ins eight stone pensioner – who had arthritis and was partially deaf – attacked him during the incident on April 1, 2014.

After a struggle, he said she ‘jumped onto' her own 20ins carving knife – which her horrified son-in-law discovered still embedded in her neck when he found her body the next day. Naylor appeared on The Jeremy Kyle Show just five months before murdering Mrs Walker – to take a DNA test to prove he was the dad of one of his children.

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Naylor boasted to the host he had two children with another on the way, and bragged to researchers: "I get everybody pregnant. I impregnate everyone I've been with." By the time he was sent to begin a life sentence he was a father-of-four.

Sheffield Crown Court heard Naylor was friends with Mrs Walker's granddaughter, who was then aged 17.

The pair were regular visitors to Mrs Walker's home in Birkwood Avenue, Cudworth, Barnsley, where she gave them food, money and cigarettes.

Jurors were told how Mrs Walker collected her pension money on the day of the murder, and told a shop worker she had fallen out with her granddaughter.

That night Naylor, formerly of Junction Street, Barnsley, was seen entering her home and emerging two hours later. Mrs Walker suffered more than 40 injuries to her head, face, neck, arms and chest.

While present at Mrs Walker’s home, Naylor rifled through her jewellery box, attacked her again, and went home to wash – before heading out into Barnsley where he spent her money on drinks, McDonald's and a taxi home.

Naylor received a life sentence, with a minimum term of 33 years, in October 2014, and has currently served just under a decade behind bars.

He applied to have his minimum term reduced in April 2015, but Court of Appeal judges ruled he deserved ‘every day’ of his 33-year sentence.

Mr Justice Nicol said at the time: "This was a case, as the judge said in his sentencing remarks, of a particularly brutal murder, conducted in a way that must have caused tremendous suffering for the victim. She was in her own home, she was 75 and she had shown considerable kindness to Naylor in the past."