‘Mother helped her ex-soldier son kill his grandma’
A FORMER soldier suffocated his grandmother then colluded with his mother to conceal the killing, a court heard yesterday.
John, her her Barry mother, drugs 50, Rogers, are and accused Betty 33, whisky Guy, and of murdering Penelope by before giving smothering Jurors were her told with the pair a pillow. pretended the 84-year-old had terminal cancer and rushed through her cremation to destroy any forensic evidence.
The retired nurse suffered bouts of ill health in the weeks before her death but was otherwise well, Swansea Crown Court heard.
The alleged murder happened on November 7, 2011, but the accused were not investigated until Rogers’ ex-girlfriend, Sandra Adams, reported him to police in 2015.
Detectives then tracked down two more of his former partners. Both said he had confessed to ‘finishing off’ his grandmother because he thought she wanted were bail had record in bugged arrested 2016, their to die. unaware conversations. Rogers and their released that home and police John on to can In be the heard covert telling tapes, his mother: Rogers ‘ No, honestly, you have got nothing to worry about, it’s me that’s done the act.’
Later that day, while discussing their police interviews, John said to her son: ‘I’m glad I didn’t say I gave her tablets.’
The recordings also show Rogers and John expressed concerns about incriminating text messages. He told her: ‘A slip of a word here and we’re in deep s*** – we’re in jail for life.’
Paul Lewis, prosecuting, said: ‘Such conversations are not consistent with Mrs Guy having suffered a natural and peaceful death. They lied and tried to conceal the arrangement that had been made and the steps they took to end Mrs Guy’s life.’ The QC told the jury: ‘In short, we allege that the defendants
had together agreed to end the life of Mrs Guy. ‘Penelope John summoned her son to Mrs Guy’s home to put their plan into operation. Pene- lope John gave her mother a cocktail of crushed tablets and alcohol, and Barry Rogers then deliberately killed her, probably by smothering her with an object such as a cushion or pillow.’
The jury was told Rogers had a close relationship with his grandmother but had joked to her that if she became too ill he could ‘come and finish her off’. In the hours before the alleged murder in the village of St Dogmaels, Pembrokeshire, Rogers is said to have taken a call from his mother and was overheard saying: ‘It’s time is it?’ He was staying with his thengirlfriend Rhianne Morris at her house in Frome, Somerset. Mr Lewis said: ‘When Barry Rogers subsequently returned to Frome he told Miss Morris his mum had given his nan a bottle of whisky and a load of tablets.’ In 2014, Rogers married Lisa Watkins and the court heard he made a series of similar confessions to her about killing his grandmother. He repeated these comments to Miss Adams, who he started seeing after his marriage to Miss Watkins ended. Rogers, who has one child, told police in his first interview: ‘I wouldn’t mind starting off by saying my nan died of old age.’ John, who has two other children, claimed she and her son had never discussed helping her mother to die. She sobbed in the dock as the jury were played the 999 call she made after the death. Mrs Guy’s body was assessed by GP Roger Burns, who noticed small that could haemorrhages have been on evidence her face of suffocation. However the court heard that Dr Deryk James, a pathologist, could not rule out death from natural causes. Jurors were told Mrs Guy was given a cocktail of whisky, the tranquilliser diazepam and the sleeping tablet zoplicone. There was no post-mortem evidence because Mrs Guy was cremated. John and Rogers deny murder and manslaughter. The trial continues.
‘Come and finish her off’