Body in freezer killer dies in prison
‘BODY in the freezer’ murderer Sharon Swinhoe has died in prison after testing positive for Covid-19, according to reports.
The Newcastle killer was serving 25 years for murdering her retired civil servant boyfriend Peter McMahon before plundering his bank account for thousands of pounds.
Alongside accomplice Joseph Collins, 54, Swinhoe was found guilty in 2013 of murdering the grandfather-ofone at her home by gouging his eyes out.
Newcastle Crown Court heard the pair first threw his body into a dog kennel and then moved him in a suitcase to a specially-bought chest freezer kept in the bedroom of Collins’ flat in Elswick.
Swinhoe, 52, formerly of Walker, died in hospital on February 23. It is reported that she is one of two women prisoners to have died after being struck down with Covid-19 at New Hall prison at Flockton, near Huddersfield in Yorkshire. A Prison Service spokesperson said: “HMP New Hall prisoner Sharon Swinhoe died in hospital on 23 February. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has been informed.”
The Prison Service said it could not confirm the cause of death which was a matter for the coroner.
Mr McMahon’s corpse was discovered in a chest freezer by police at Collins’ eighth-floor flat at the Sycamores, Elswick, in December 2012.
He had died from heart failure triggered by the injuries to his eyes between late October and early November 2012 – however an exact date of his death was never divulged by either defendants.
The court heard how Swinhoe had been in a relationship with the former local government worker, described by the prosecution as her “sugar daddy”, and between the time he went missing and was discovered by officers, she had plundered £2,660 from his bank accounts.
Jailing Swinhoe in 2013, Mr Justice Globe branded her a “sinister” liar who had shown no remorse for her crime.