Warped loner Rhys Bennett who raped & murdered Jill Barclay was local ‘weirdo’ caught running naked through fields

MANIAC killer Rhys Bennett who raped and murdered mum Jill Barclay and set her on fire was known as the local “weirdo” where he grew up.

The depraved monster admitted sexually assaulting and killing a mum at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday.

He was also charged with attempting to defeat the ends of justice after he set her body on fire.

Judge Lord Arthurson branded his crimes “unimaginably wicked and medieval in their barbarity”.

Residents from the tiny community in Fife now claim he wandered the country roads in bizarre outfits and pointed toy guns at passing cars before the gruesome murder.

And others alleged he was caught running through fields naked near Edzell, Angus.

A former neighbour said: “He went about dressed as if he’d just arrived from the 1920s. He had a wooden gun that he waved at me a few times.

“When I heard about what he had done I wasn’t surprised at all. He was a weirdo.”

Bennett moved north from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, when he was six.

It was claimed his parents never worked and never had visitors at their remote farmhouse.

The neighbour added: “The curtains were always drawn. No one had any idea what went on up there.

“One night Bennett was caught running about completely naked. Just very strange.”

It was claimed Bennett was bullied at school for being different and dubbed “briefcase boy” over his bag.

It’s believed Bennett struck up a relationship with a woman in Fort William, Inverness-shire, from the end of September 2021 until Christmas that year.

In the wake of Jill’s brutal killing in Aberdeen, friends told Police Scotland that Bennett was a “gun freak”.

Investigators were told that all he had talked about while studying horticulture for two years was guns.

It’s understood his parents left their farmhouse last Summer and moved to Ballingry, Fife.

After he was arrested a search of his home led to an air rifle and replica guns being taken into evidence, but all were purchased legally.

Locals described him as “quiet” and “weird”.

One said: “He didn’t look like he was from around here.”

Yesterday, one neighbour added: “I saw him, he was walking about here. I have two young children and to have a creep like that walking about this street, it’s not right.”

Another added: “It’s nothing to do with the mum and dad. But we’re definitely not wanting a murderer back here.

“To burn somebody alive is absolutely vile.

“If he ever tried to come back we would put a petition up to get him out, just like we do with the paedophiles. He’s a dirty scumbag.”

Jill’s devastated loved ones told of their trauma at her savage death.

A family statement read: “Jill was a deeply loved life partner, mother and daughter. She didn’t deserve to die and especially in the unspeakable, brutal way it happened.

“This man has taken so much from us and changed our lives forever.”

Detective Superintendent Andrew Patrick, who led the murder probe, paid tribute to their “immense strength”.

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