From AUDREY GILLAN

in Jersey

TWO Scottish brothers were jailed yesterday almost seven years after

the murder of their parents, one for life for beating them to death in

their Jersey home.

Roderick Newall, 29, had admitted killing his father, Nicholas, 56,

and his mother, Elizabeth, 47, in a frenzied, bloody attack.

His younger brother, Mark, 28, was sentenced to six years for his part

in burying his parents' bodies, disposing of evidence, covering up the

murder, and lying to the police.

A packed Royal Court in the island's capital, St Helier, was told that

Roderick had planned the murders and had bludgeoned his parents while

they lay on the floor of their bungalow.

More than 60 journalists and 50 members of the public huddled together

on creaking mahogany benches to listen to Jersey's Attorney-General, Sir

Michael Birt, give the horrific details of the murder of the happily

married, middle-aged Scots couple.

Earlier this year, Roderick pled guilty to the charge of murder while

Mark admitted a reduced charge of assisting an offender after murder.

The Crown yesterday attempted to prove premeditation.

The Attorney-General told of the mystery surrounding the disappearance

of the Newalls who were never seen again after October 10, 1987, and how

their bodies had lain together, head to foot, undiscovered in a shallow

grave for six years.

Mr Birt told the bailiff, Sir Peter Crill, that the double murders had

been premeditated and alleged that Roderick had gone out on the morning

of the murders to buy equipment which he would later use both to kill

and dispose of his parents' bodies. This included blue and green

tarpaulins which eventually became their shrouds.

He said the wounds inflicted on Mr Nicholas Newall were not all

consistent with the rice flails with which Roderick said he attacked

him. Instead there was an eight-inch gash consistent with the edge of a

pick-axe.

After the murders, the brothers had wrapped the bodies in tarpaulins,

driven them away, and buried them. They then returned to the bungalow

where they began a painstaking operation to remove any evidence.

The 10 jurats -- responsible for determining sentence in Jersey's

criminal cases -- sat on the French-style bench and listened as Mr Birt

told how the family had been out for a champagne dinner as an early

celebration for Mrs Newall's pending 48th birthday.

At the Sea Crest restaurant they seemed a normal family, except Mark,

described by one witness as quiet and miserable.

He spoke of how the family, except Mark, had drunk a large amount of

alcohol and continued to do so when they returned to the Newall bungalow

at 9 Clos de l'Atlantique. Mr Birt also told a hushed court that the

relationship between the sons and their parents was ''cold and

complex''.

The stuffy courtroom heard how Mr Nicholas Newall was killed in front

of the fire in the lounge, a number of rapid blows being rained on his

fallen body. His wife was killed in her own bedroom, again on the floor

but not with the same brutal force.

As the Attorney-General gave these gruesome details, the two

fair-haired, smartly dressed brothers appeared calm as they sat at the

front of the court. Listening intently, they read through their own

copies of Mr Birt's statement, Roderick sometimes leaning forward to

consult with his advocate, Mr David LeQuesne.

Roderick did not flinch as Mr Birt said the murders were not, as

Roderick claimed, a result of an argument which reopened old wounds and

led to a head to head between his father and himself.

They were instead premeditated and when the disappearance of the

Newalls became the subject of a police investigation he gave statements

that were in fact lies, ''carefully crafted with meticulous care''.

Mr Birt said Mark's part in the tragedy was ''chilling and shameful''

and that his ''bland admission that he helped his brother bury the

bodies at Greve de Lecq, to clean the house and dispose of the evidence,

disguises the most callous disregard for his parents' fate and

understates the extraordinary efforts and lengths taken to hide a

vicious crime and its perpetrator''.

Mr LeQuesne rebutted allegations that the murders had been

premeditated, saying the Crown's evidence was meagre and unreliable. He

asked the court to consider that Roderick, as a former Army officer,

would have had ''the requirement for careful planning drummed into

him''.

He asked nine questions, including ''why would he plan a murder in

which he would inevitably be a prime suspect?'', and ''why plan a murder

in such a way as to cause a bloodbath?''

The advocate contested that the murders rang true of ''a sudden,

terrible violent episode resulting from a frenzy fuelled by drink and

provoked by his father pushing him over''.

He said Roderick had not bought the equipment, including pickaxe and

tarpaulins, from a builders' merchant on the morning of the murder.

Addressing the issue of the brothers' alleged poor relations with his

parents, Mr LeQuesne said: ''I have been specifically instructed not to

excuse Roderick Newall for his crime by indulging in character

assassination. Roderick Newall accepts his crimes were inexcusable.

However, such crimes do not happen in normal happy families.''

The advocate then referred to a taped conversation between Roderick

and his uncle, Dr Stephen Newall, in the Dunkeld House Hotel.

He said: ''Stephen Newall said, 'We of course watched from the

sidelines and saw two very badly treated little boys . . .' ''

The same uncle also said that Mark ''always came in for the heavy end

of the thing. Suffice it to say that Mark Newall knew from an early age

that his parents disliked him and as he grew older, so he grew apart

from them''.

He said Mark has ''had to live under the sword of Damocles since 1987.

He had lost his job, his position in the world and his friends. All of

this is the result of a wrong decision made under threat of his brother

blowing his brains out, when aged 21.''

Returning after just 25 minutes to pass sentence, Sir Peter Crill said

he had decided not to consider premeditation, but told Roderick Newall

that his crimes of patricide and matricide were odious and that he would

serve concurrent life sentences.

Mark Newall's involvement in the cover-up was ''a very grave

interference to the course of justice'' and he was given concurrent

sentences of six years.