The Central Criminal Court, The Old Bailey. Image: LMMNews

A TV satellite engineer from Harrow has been found guilty of stabbing to death his next-door neighbour after becoming incensed at losing a long-running dispute.

The prosecution said 48 year old Trevor Gibbon was ‘out for revenge’ when he armed himself with two knives and ambushed 45 year old mother-of-one Alison Morrison as she walked to the station on her way to work in December last year.

Trevor Gibbon. Found guilty of murdering Alison Morrison. Custody image from Met Police.

It was seven days before Christmas when she was stabbed repeatedly 33 times in Alexandra Avenue.

He carried out the killing the day after he was handed a restraining order, having pleaded guilty to harassing Mrs Morrison and her family in Windsor Crescent Harrow since 2011.

As she lay dying in the street near her home, Mrs Morrison repeatedly named her attacker, telling people who came to help her: ‘Trevor Gibbon did this to me.’

Gibbon fled the scene in his Mercedes car and was arrested the same morning 100 miles away in Lincolnshire, saying he was ‘heading for the coast.’

He told the police ‘It was over a neighbour dispute,’ and the court heard he still had dried blood on his hands.

Gibbon argued that he was ‘suffering from an abnormality of mental functioning’ which impaired his ability to form rational judgment and exercise self-control.

After two days of deliberation the jury rejected his defence finding him guilty of murder for which he will be sentenced on 30th June.

Alison Morrison- the murder victim. Much respected as safer neighbourhood board volunteer. Image: Met Police.

Detective Inspector Jamie Stevenson, who led the investigation for the Homicide and Major Crime Command, said:

Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, Trevor Gibbon has put the family of Alison through the ordeal of a trial, during which they have had to re- live the events of that terrible day. It is only right that the judge praised the family for their quiet dignity throughout the trial.

Chief Superintendent Simon Ovens, Harrow Borough Commander, said of Alison – who volunteered as Vice Chair of Harrow’s Safer Neighbourhood Board:

Nothing can bring back Alison Morrison or make up for her loss, but the man responsible for her death has been brought to justice. My thoughts are with Alison’s family and I hope that this, in some way, will help them as they continue to come to terms with the consequences of Gibbon’s actions.

We all continue to miss Alison a great deal but her family and many friends and colleagues in the police will take solace from today’s decision by the jury.

Met Police detectives have prepared victim impact statements from Alison Morrison’s family.

Her widower Cedric said:

At her funeral it was not just the tributes paid but the send off by the Police, as if she was an Officer. A line of Officers saluted the funeral procession as it passed the station where the flag was flown at half mast for her. Some of the Officers who had dealt with the family on that dreadful day also attended the funeral. This bestowed an honour on my wife that reflects how her passing has affected all of those who knew & loved her, because to know her is to love her.

Mr Morrison described the catastrophic impact of her murder on his family and concluded:

Alison’s death will always be beyond my comprehension because she died for nothing in the cruellest way possible at the hands of our neighbour. A Bright Light Has Been Extinguished.

Mrs Morrison’s son Kori was unable to sit his exams and has to repeat a year of school as a result of the trauma of his mother’s death.

He said in his impact statement:

Every morning when I wake up, I have to remind myself that my mum is gone. I realise I can never again go into her room to wake her. It breaks my heart every day not have her with me. I think of my mum hundreds of times a day and there have been many times where I could just not hold it together. I so desperately want my mum back and I would do anything to have her here with me again. But, I know she’s never coming back and I’ll never see her again. Never speak to her, play with her, enjoy a meal with her, go out with her or do anything ever again with her. She’s gone. All because of one man…Trevor Gibbon…the man who murdered my mum.

Mrs Morrison’s sister Julie said:

Nothing I could possibly put into words could convey the horror, disbelief or emotional pain that the brutal, tortuous murder of my younger sister has made me feel. Although tears coming from eyes are all you can see, inside, a part of me has died. The fact that I will never see her smiling beautiful face, or be able to spend the rest of my life ever in her company, is indescribable. Alison was young and had her whole life ahead of her, things she planned to do, things we planned to do. I rarely sleep much now, I lay awake wondering how someone could take her life in such a callous, brutal manner, how terrified and in pain she must have been. Now she has gone but my life will never be the same.

Another of Alison’s sisters, Lorraine Brathwaite, has defiantly told Gibbon:

I will not be another victim of your hatred and selfishness. I refuse to allow my sister’s death to be in vain and will use her determination, her courage and her strength to get through this. […] I couldn’t save my sister, I couldn’t stop what happened to her. What I can do, is respect and honour of her memory, her many achievements and how proud I am. She was more than your actions, so much more.

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