KILLER GRAN FROM HELL
Evil partner choked ‘generous’ OAP Alan then tried to steal his £86K
A KILLER gran choked an OAP by standing on his throat, then tried to steal his £86,000 inheritance.
Sharyn Stewart was jailed for life yesterday over Alan Cowie’s murder.
AN EVIL gran who killed a “generous” pensioner and then tried to steal his inheritance was jailed for life yesterday.
Sharyn Stewart, 53, murdered Alan Cowie, 65, by knocking him to the ground and standing on his throat until he stopped breathing.
She then went to a party, where she confessed to the killing.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard Stewart attacked Alan after a confrontation at his Aberdeen flat on January 2 last year.
Jurors were told she occasionally lived with Alan and that the pair had a “confusing” relationship.
Stewart’s trial heard her victim gave her money throughout the time he had known her.
In the months before the murder, Alan inherited £86,000 from a relative. After killing him, Stewart tried to get her hands on the money.
Although she wasn’t charged with any financial crimes, the jury heard tape recordings of her phoning banks where Alan held his finances.
She even enlisted the help of a man to pretend to be Alan during the calls.
Her efforts failed, because Alan had previously reported his cards stolen. The court heard he told bank workers: “My girlfriend stole it out my house.”
Stewart spent her life battling drink and drug addictions and once worked as a prostitute in Aberdeen to obtain money to feed her habit.
The gran, a prisoner of HMP Grampian, admitted killing Alan but claimed she didn’t murder him. She said she had mental health problems and didn’t know right from wrong.
During the eight-day trial, she also claimed Alan provoked the attack.
She said she wasn’t romantically involved with him and only lived with the OAP occasionally so she could have easy access to her daughter and grandkids, who lived next door to him in Alexander Terrace, Tillydrone.
She said Alan repeatedly wanted to sleep with her but she refused. She claimed he would then call her names, including “prostitute”.
Stewart said they had spent the moments leading up to the deadly assault drinking and arguing.
She wept as she told the court: “The argument was going back and forth. I said, ‘P*** off you old b ***** d’ – that’s the last thing I said to him.
“I remember him running into me and pushing me – I fell back.
“It was like slow motion. When I got up, I don’t know… I exploded. I remember standing over him with my feet on his throat. I was banging him off the floor.”
Stewart’s lawyers argued that she suffered from diminished responsibility at the time of the attack. However, psychiatrist Dr Alasdair Forrest said he examined her and couldn’t find evidence she didn’t know what she was doing when she killed Alan.
John Patterson, 39, was at the house party in Aberdeen that Stewart attended after the murder.
He told the court: “She looked a bit depressed. She came over and sat beside me. She told me that she had just killed someone.
“She had stood on his neck and put a bag over his head.” Alistair Smith, 28, told prosecutor Angela Gray how he lived with Stewart’s daughter Lauren and their three children at the flat next door to Alan’s. He said the OAP and Stewart would often bicker and had a “confusing” relationship. He added: “To Alan, they were partners. To Sharyn, they were good friends.” Alistair said Alan often gave people money, adding: “He took us on holiday. He was a generous guy.”
Jurors yesterday convicted Stewart of murder after deliberating for a day.
Judge Lord Pentland sentenced her to a life term and ordered her to serve a minimum of 15 years.
He said: “I conclude that you committed a savage and cruel murder with deliberation. The medical evidence showed he was fighting for his life but you showed him no mercy.
“The jury has, rightly in my view, rejected your defence of provocation. They have seen through your tissue of lies.
“Although your relationship with Mr Cowie was a difficult one, my overall impression is that you preyed on and manipulated him in order to secure money to feed your addictions to drink and drugs.”
Following the conviction, the court heard that Stewart had previous convictions for violence, dishonesty and fraud, dating from 1988 to the present day.
Before ordering Stewart to be taken to the cells, Lord Pentland told her: “You have not shown the slightest bit of regret or remorse for your actions.”
Detective Inspector Gary Winter, who led the inquiry, said: “Despite having her own home, Sharyn Stewart lived with Alan Cowie in his flat, although she claimed to not be in a relationship with him.
“Our inquiries identified that a significant portion of his finances went on purchases for Stewart and when money was not available to her she became violent and cruel.
“Her final act towards him would turn out to be the most violent and brutal of them all when she banged his head repeatedly off the kitchen floor and thereafter stood on his throat until he was dead.
“My thoughts are with Alan’s family.”