A SENTENCING date has been set for the man who killed a frail pensioner in her Quantock Hills village home.

David Parish, aged 37, bludgeoned to death Beryl ‘Bez’ Purdy, aged 86, during a burglary of her home in Broomfield last year.

Parish was later sectioned under the Mental Health Act and has been held in a secure mental health hospital.

He admitted Mrs Purdy’s manslaughter and will now be sentenced on March 28, 2025, two years and a day after the killing.

Parish appeared on Friday (December 20) before High Court Judge Mr Justice Saini sitting in Bristol Crown Court, when he was told further case management would be conducted on January 17 before the sentencing in March.

Judge Saini extended an interim hospital order for Parish until his next court appearance.

Parish was initially charged with Mrs Purdy’s murder, but the Crown Prosecution Service later accepted a ‘diminished responsibility’ manslaughter plea on the grounds that he was not fully responsible for his actions.

Psychiatric reports commissioned by the Crown and by defence lawyers for Parish both concluded his mental state at the time of the killing meant he could not be considered to be fully aware of his actions.

Parish, whose last address to be given in court was Halyard Drive, Bridgwater, was reported to police as missing from a mental health facility earlier on the day of Mrs Purdy’s killing.

He was arrested three hours after the death by police who used dogs and a helicopter to track him to woodland not far from Broomfield.

Mrs Purdy had been a churchwarden in the Church of St Mary and All Saints opposite her home for 20 years and had also served 10 years as Broomfield Village Hall bookings officer.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has been investigating how Avon and Somerset Constabulary officers reacted after concern over a missing man ‘in his 30s’ was reported to the force several hours before Mrs Purdy was killed.

The IOPC has been in contact with Mrs Purdy’s family to keep them abreast of its investigation but no outcome has yet been reached.