Friend shoved gran to her death in row over holiday
A WOMAN who killed her friend after they fell out over a cancelled holiday has been convicted of her manslaughter.
In what could have been the “perfect murder”, Rosalind Gray pushed Linda Rainey down a flight of stairs, inflicting a fatal brain injury.
Gray, 56, is said to have owed £200 to grandmother Ms Rainey, 60, after a flight mix-up forced them to abandon a trip to Morocco in 2018.
The pair exchanged texts in which Ms Rainey asked for her money and Gray called Ms Rainey a “nasty old troll”, Norwich Crown Court heard.
They argued again when they met unexpectedly at the home of mutual friend Adrian Lawrence, 54.
Prosecutor Andrew Jackson said: “That argument ended when Gray pushed Linda Rainey in the chest as she stood right at the top of the stairs.” He said she went flying backwards and landed at the bottom.
The mother of five died two days later on August 7 last year without regaining consciousness after her life support was turned off.
Gray and Lawrence, 54, both of Great Yarmouth, set out to pretend her death was an accident and tried to silence witness EmmaWalker who had been in the flat.
They told her to hide in another room when paramedics arrived to treat Ms Rainey because she “couldn’t be trusted to stay quiet”.
But Ms Walker spoke to police on August 10 and revealed what had happened.
Mr Jackson said Ms Rainey’s death would have been an “undetected perfect murder” if it had been put down to a tragic accident. Gray had denied murder but a jury took less than two hours to find her guilty of manslaughter on Thursday.
She and Lawrence were also convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice between August 5 and August 12 last year.
Judge Stephen Holt adjourned sentencing until September 10 for reports to assess Gray’s danger to the public.
But he warned her she faced prison, saying: “The jury has convicted you of a very serious offence.”
Thanking Ms Walker, Det Chief Insp Mike Brown of Norfolk Police said: “Without [her] honest and consistent account of the circumstances leading up to, and during the days after the incident, we may not have ever known the truth behind Linda’s untimely and tragic death.”