Taxi driver makes first appearance in dock accused of Southport double murder




A TAXI driver accused of murdering to two elderly women in Southport sobbed when he appeared in the dock for the first time at Liverpool Crown Court this week.

Andrew Flood, is alleged to have murdered Margaret Biddolph, 78, and Anne Leyland, 88, both widows, in their Southport homes.

Flood, 43, who was wearing a pale blue T-shirt and track suit bottoms, sobbed when asked to confirm his identity by the court clerk on Monday (June 11).

He had been expected to enter his pleas today but Nicholas Johnson, QC, prosecuting, said that a psychiatric report was not yet ready. “It is felt premature to proceed in the absence of that report,” he said.

A provisional date for his trial, expected to last five to seven days, has already been fixed to begin on July 23 and he was further remanded in custody until that date by Judge Gerald Clifton.

The body of Mrs Biddolph was found at her home in Lonsdale Road after Flood went to Copy Lane police station. In the early hours of the following morning, February 22, the other victim's body was found at her home in Birch Street.

Post mortem examinations revealed the pensioners, who lived alone, were killed through asphyxiation .

Flood, a balding father-of-three, of Clifton Road, Southport, is also charged with the robbery of Maureen Suckley, 76, at her home in Jane's Brook Road in Southport on Saturday, February 18.

He has appeared at the court before but only via video link from jail.

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