Murder Site
11 Gorringe Road, Eastbourne
On the 9th of December 2001 Kim Baldry a 44 year old Nursing Home Manager was at home with her children and a male work friend. Things were looking good for Kim in the run up to the holiday season, she was divorced from her husband, and was being courted by a new young man from the Middle East.Life looked good but she was not to know her life would come to a brutal and bloody end in just a couple of hours.Sadly there was another part of this jigsaw, his name was Anthony Pate. After her divorce had come through and feeling a little lonely (as women in this situation usually do), she befriended Anthony Frederick Pate, he seemed a bit odd but he was different to her husband and wanting a complete change she started a relationship with him. It didn't take long for her to realise that Anthony was a total loser, but not only that, he was a nut job who could not handle rejection. Kim tried to gently kick him to the kerb but he wouldn't get the message that he was history. He refused to accept the short relationship was at an end, and pestered Kim at home and at work.
On the 9th of December 2001 the situation turned into tragedy.
Pate woke up in his grotty apartment in Belle Vue Road feeling lonely and dejected and went out drinking at the local bar, The Marine pub. It was here he bumped into a fellow drunk and started to pour out his sad life to his new buddy. The two tried unsuccessfully to chat up women at the bar, but they were rejected outright. This made them both angry and now very drunk, Pate thought he would try his luck with Kim again, after all it was nearly Christmas and he thought maybe they could give the relationship one more shot, unaware that she had already moved onto a new partner. He got on the phone and hounded Kim all afternoon. He could not understand why she was so adamant that he was not welcome over to her place, this just made things worse for the mentally fragile loner. By 6pm he was banging on the door of her large Victorian house in Gorringe Road, she let him in so the neighbours wouldn't get upset, but things got worse when he saw her new boyfriend sitting in the lounge with a glass of wine. The new guy felt threatened and (rather cowardly) left the house quickly as the now infuriated Pate started screaming out threats to kill both Kim and her new man. As the children watched in horror Pate grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed Kim 21 times, fatally wounding her. Relatives found Pate holding the knife over the lifeless body and shortly afterwards he was arrested by local Police.
Five Months later the crazed killer was in Court, his defence centred on his pathetic life up to that point, sexual abuse by his Father, a failed short career in the armed forces (where he was bullied and accused of being an idiot) and his failed marriage were all cited. He had hoped to find happiness and security with Kim, perhaps not realising that she never wanted a serious relationship.
The jury found Anthony Pate (47) guilty and he was sentenced to life ( meaning 15 years in England). As the Judge read out the sentence Pate "blinked like a madman".
He will be realised in 2016.
This case was the first grisly murder of the new Century in Eastbourne, It was certainly not the last!
"He used to hang around the local shopping centre and the Railway Station in a stupid looking blazer with a badge on it, he also had a ridiculous little moustache, he would stare at the women as they passed by, just to look at him you knew he was a real weirdo, its so sad to find out that he killed that poor woman, I don't know what she was doing with him, he didn't have a job or anything."
(Railway Buffet Employee, describing Anthony Frederick Pate)
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