A NORTH Yorkshire farmer unwittingly opened his door late at night to fugitive killer Jack Crawley following his botched attempt to murder a man with a hammer.

During Crawley’s trial, the jury heard how the hospital security guard fled into the night after failing to kill his intended victim in a remote area near the North Yorkshire village of Acaster Malbis on January 5.

The men had agreed to meet for sex after making contact on a dating app.

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Crawley, at the time aged 19, was already suspected of killing 56-year-old Paul Taylor, who went missing on October 17 last year after driving from his Annan home to Carlisle.

After skipping his bail in December, Crawley disguised himself with a fake “Hagrid” style beard before travelling to Scotland, visiting Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, before then arriving in York on January 4.

He claimed he was sent to the city by a London based "criminal gang."

After buying a claw hammer at York’s Toolstation store, he used Grindr to arrange a sex “hook-up” with a man near to Acaster Malbis on the evening of January 5. The unsuspecting victim was then attacked, the court heard.

But the man fought back, disarming Crawley, who then fled.

The trial was shown CCTV footage of the defendant – dishevelled and limping - as he ran along country roads, eventually stumbling, minus one of his shoes, into the farmer’s yard just before 10pm.

He knocked on the farmer’s front door to ask for help and, having told the farmer an invented story about his plight, he was duly invited inside.

In a statement, the farmer recalled the encounter.

“There was a male standing on the doorstep,” said the farmer. “He was filthy, covered in mud and shaking. He was stressed and only had one shoe. He told me he’d been come off his bike after hitting a pothole.

“He told me he’d come across fields to get to my address and walked into an electric fence. He was not carrying anything.”

The farmer described Crawley, who had no phone, as “quietly spoken.” Because of Crawley's physical appearance, he told him he should go to a hospital.

He asked the farmer to drop him off in an area of York, telling him that his mother lived there. During the journey, said the farmer, Crawley talked about what his father would say in response to him falling off his bike.

Concluding his statement, the farmer said: “I was in the company of this male for approximately 30 minutes… I recognised him from social media and press requests. I immediately recognised him as the male who came to my house.”

The day after the attempted murder, a couple who live in Beresford Terrace, York, discovered their home had been burgled.

Crawley had stolen shoes and clothing, including trousers, a hat and a scarf, presumably to replace the items he had left behind when he ran from his intended victim the previous night.

The defendant had travelled south but was arrested in Bristol on February 3 on suspicion of attempted murder. When interviewed, he claimed the man he had tried to kill was “going a bit fast” with the sexual contact.

He accused him of offering him drugs – and then threatening him with a knife, all allegations the man denied. Crawley admitted attacking the man with a hammer, saying he used it in self-defence.

Asked why he had the hammer, he told the detectives he was homeless, adding: “I always have it on me. You get people coming up to you all the time. You might be asleep… someone will come up and kick you.”

Describing his visit to the farmhouse, he said: “There was a farmhouse I’d seen, with lights on, so I walked there and knocked on the door.

“I was mudded up and blooded up, but obviously I didn’t want to tell them I’d just had a scuffle over drugs or whatever, or knife fight with some random guy.

“So, I told them I’d crashed my bike and then they gave me a lift back into town which was some like nice farmyard couple, an old couple. I didn’t really want to bother them but I didn’t know my way back.

“So I knocked on their door and said I’d crashed my motorbike; are you alright to give me a lift back. They said it was fine”

When police searched Crawley’s home in Carlisle, they found a stash of latex masks, cable ties, gaffer tape, and nylon rope.

He was released on police bail on November 17 last year because at that time, there was insufficient evidence for the police to continue holding him. Mr Taylor’s remains were not found until months later.

Crawley skipped bail on New Year's Eve.

After a three week trial this month, Crawley was convicted of both murder and attempted murder. He is due to be sentenced tomorrow, Wednesday.