Killers who put victim’s body in bin jailed for life
ACOUPLE who murdered a homeless woman so they could reap her £12,000-a-year benefits have been jailed for life.
Lisa Bennett was drowned in a bath shortly after her 39th birthday before being dumped in a communal bin in Weoley Castle in May 2013. Her body was unknowingly incinerated with the waste.
Kevin Flanagan, 39, and his girlfriend Kathleen Salmond, 40, then called the Department for Works and Pensions (DWP) to have their victim’s benefit payments paid into their bank account.
They also sent Miss Bennett’s mother loving messages from her phone in a bid to trick her into thinking her daughter was claiming £230 a week.
Both were found guilty of murder at Birmingham Crown Court.
Salmond, of Farnhurst Road, Hodge Hill, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years. She will also serve six years for preventing a burial and 10 months for fraud concurrently.
Flanagan, of Redbrook Covert, Kings Norton, was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum term of 32 years. He was given four years and ten months for preventing a burial and eight months for fraud which will run concurrently.
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Miss Bennett was first reported missing on May 22, 2013, two weeks after her murder inside Flanagan’s Weirbrook Close flat. Miss Bennett, who was a recovering drug addict, was last seen picking up her prescribed substitute for heroin from a Selly Oak pharmacy on May 9.
Suspicions were first raised when Flanagan was interviewed having fraudulently claimed £4,000 of her benefits over four months.
He was charged with murder after his own brother shopped him to the police over a confession he made.
A victim impact statement
Miss Bennett’s mother, Janet from Bennett,
said: “Lisa was my eldest daughter and I loved her with all my heart. I didn’t approve of the life she lived but she was still my daughter.
“My hope was that she would be able to turn her life around. I didn’t know whether she would be able to make that change, but that chance was taken away from her when she was murdered.
“Since the day she went missing, I have lived in hope that she was still alive and well. I spent my days waiting for her to come home or to ring me to say she was ok.
“I found myself searching crowds for her face. Not a day goes by without me thinking of Lisa.
“There are a lot of people who loved Lisa and know her to be kind caring, loving and generous person who went down the wrong track.”