NEW INN MURDER TRIAL: Killer went shopping after murdering his boss

And, the court heard, he had committed a strikingly similar robbery to the New Inn crime in California.

BORN in the UK, Carter moved to America at a young age and grew up in the US and Canada.

During the trial, jury members heard that Carter was given a “tentative diagnosis” of a personality disorder when he was just nine years old, during a four-year stay at a psychiatric hospital in the US.

Carter was admitted to the hospital in 1965, after stealing from his mother and from shops and setting fires, including one at his home in a closet.

The court was also told that Carter had a troubled childhood, including regular beatings from his mother, an unstable family life, and unsettled adult life.

In March 1979 Carter, then 22, was convicted of aggravated robbery and given a five year prison sentence, suspended for two years.

The court heard Carter, and a male accomplice, robbed two men of their wallets and car keys at gun point, whilst they slept in their car by the side of the road in Utah.

Carter was later arrested and a shotgun was found in the boot of his car, the court heard.

In September 1985 Carter, then 29, carried out a robbery at the Central Savings and Loans Association in Bakersfield, California, which had chilling echoes of the murder he would later go on to commit in Gwent.

Carter and a female accomplice, who was living with him and his then wife, went into the Bakersfield bank armed with a realistic-looking toy gun.

During the incident, in which they stole $8094.54, the pair tied staff up with rope and gagged them with ripped bed sheets they had taken with them in a black briefcase, the court heard.

Carter then told two female staff they would be injected before his female friend injected them with potassium hydroxide, a corrosive liquid.

In New Inn, Carter would later go equipped to the crime scene with two syringes containing heroin and an anti-depressant.

Following the Bakersfield robbery Carter flew to Los Angeles where he was arrested, found to be using a false name and told police he was absent without leave from the USA airforce.

He was sentenced to 20 years in jail, but was paroled in 1997.

When he was released on parole Carter failed to comply with his parole conditions and flew to the UK from Canada.

In April 2008, Carter was convicted of harassment while he was working as a train guard for Arriva Trains.

Carter approached a woman and intimidated her into giving him her personal details and phone number.

He then went on to make telephone calls and text messages saying he wished to make further contact with the woman.

On another occasion Carter tried to make contact with a woman via bluetooth.

He sent several suggestive and unpleasant comments before approaching her, causing the woman distress and leaving her scared to use the train to travel to work, the court heard.

Carter’s solicitor told Cardiff magistrates’ court that his client was “truly remorseful” and he believed the proceedings had such an effect on him that “he will never trouble the courts again.”

He joined Driverline 247 as a lorry driver in May 2008, with no references and was taken on as a temporary worker.

Interviews with Russell Carter immediately after the New Inn incident and in the months that followed revealed a man with disruptive traits including a short temper, a strong sense of injustice, an inability to take criticism and put downs, and a callous disregard for the feelings of others.

Dr Sukhinder Shergill, who interviewed Carter on behalf of his solicitors said that Carter “ticks all the boxes, fits almost all the criteria for paranoid and antisocial personality disorders.”

But consultant forensic psychiatrist Phillip Joseph for the prosecution, told the court Carter became hostile and increasingly angry when asked about the incident at Driverline 247.

He said Carter was “not suffering any abnormality of mind which would substantially diminish his responsibility for committing the offence.