Pair guilty of murdering victim who was never found
Evil couple killed woman before claiming benefits
AN “inhuman” couple who killed a homeless woman have been condemned in court for treating her “like a piece of rubbish”.
Kevin Flanagan and
Kathleen Salmond were convicted of murdering
The pair drowned Ms Bennett in their bath before claiming her benefits.
They were convicted after Flanagan’s own brother told police his sibling had confessed to carrying out the crime.
Salmond, who appeared at trial via video link from a bed, was also found guilty of benefit fraud between May 8 and 31 2013 and preventing 39-year-old Miss Bennett’s burial, charges Flanagan previously admitted.
Flanagan, of Redbrook Covert, Kings Norton, Birmingham, and Salmond, 40, of Farnhurst Road, Hodge Hill, Birmingham, were convicted on Wednesday after a trial at Birmingham Crown Court.
Jurors heard how the victim was told she would be eating her “last dinner” before she was killed and dumped in a wheelie bin in 2013.
The remains were then unkowingly incinerated at a waste facility, prosecuting barrister Simon Denison QC told the jury of nine men and three women.
No trace of Miss Bennett’s body has ever been found.
Mr Denison said: “It is an almostinhuman thing to do to treat not just a human body but the body of someone they knew, as a piece of rubbish to be thrown away.” girlfriend this week Lisa Bennett.
Salmond, who is now largely confined to a bed or wheelchair, and Flanagan carried out the killing at their flat in Weirbrook Close in Weoley Castle, Birmingham, on or around May 9, 2013.
The jury heard how the defendants then cashed in on Miss Bennett’s disappearance after Salmond phoned the Department for Work and Pensions, pretending to be her, and arranging for £230 benefit to be paid into her own account.
Flanagan also used the victim’s phone to text her mother “to make her believe that nothing had hap- pened”. When questioned over the disappearance, the couple calmly told police Miss Bennett was “alive and well” and that she had asked them to transfer her benefits into Salmond’s account.
The pair also claimed a fictitious boyfriend of Miss Bennett’s was collecting the cash each week.
Jurors were told Miss Bennett was a drug and alcohol addict.
Under crossexamination from Salmond’s barrister, Flanagan insisted he told his brother Miss Bennett “died from an overdose”.
But jurors convicted 39-year-old Flanagan, and his co-accused, after a trial lasting just over three weeks.
As he was found guilty, Flanagan, who had numerous convictions going back more than 20 years for theft, robbery, shoplifting, did not react.
Salmond, who has a history of offending dating back to 2010 with convictions for assault and battery, did not appear to move in her bed as the verdicts were returned.
The couple’s crimes were only uncovered when Flanagan’s brother came forward in 2014, after seeing a televised public appeal for information about Miss Bennett.
Mr Denison said: “When he saw the TV appeal he realised what his brother had told him was true, and seeing Lisa’s mother not knowing what had happened to her daughter – when he did know – had affected him to the extent that he had to come forward, even though he said he loved his brother.”
The pair will be sentenced on Friday.