JAMES Allen has today been found guilty of the brutal double murder of 81-year-old Colin Dunford and 50-year-old Julie Davison. 

Allen said nothing as the jury returned its verdicts, and there were cries of "yes, yes" from the public gallery.

He must serve at least 37 years.

Mr Dunford was found battered to death in his Middlesbrough home. Ms Davison was stabbed to death in her Whitby flat.

Prosecutors said the motive was robbery.

The double killing sparked a huge manhunt which ended in Leeds when an off-duty police officer spotted him.

Allen, who has a history of violent crime, was convicted of murdering his vulnerable victims following a trial at Newcastle Crown Court.

He attacked Mr Dunford while lying low at a friend's house after being accused of a serious crime in April. He died from serious head injuries.

He ransacked the pensioner's home, eventually trying but failing to use Mr Dunford's bank card at a local cash machine.

The next night friends from the club over the road grew worried after Mr Dunford failed to turn up for his usual two pints, and they found him dead in his home in Leven Street.

By then, Allen had disposed of his bloody clothes and cycled 30 miles to Whitby and then on to Scarborough, North Yorkshire, where he sold a stolen gold ring.

A day later he was back in Whitby and was seen hanging around the communal hallway of the Edwardian terrace home, which was divided into flats, where Ms Davison lived.

Police believe he talked his way into her home, then launched a merciless attack on her before wrecking her home while looking for things to steal.

Ms Davison, the mother of a 28-year-old son in Preston, had epilepsy and when her body was found by her brother-in-law, she had suffered from serious head and neck injuries.

Investigators linked the two killings and a major manhunt was launched.

Allen had walked out of Ms Davison's flat wearing some of her clothes, then bought a new outfit at a sports shop and caught a bus to Leeds.

It was there that he is thought to have sold her laptop to a market trader, lying low by talking his way into staying with other people on the margins of society.

The manhunt drew national publicity and ended on April 29, when Blackpool-born Allen was spotted by an off-duty officer and was arrested.