CHAINSAW KILLER’S DRUG DEALER PAST
We reveal shocking past of man who murdered his own mother
CHAINSAW killer Robert Owens was a crack and heroin dealer who tried to flood Aberystwyth with drugs, we can reveal. Owens was told he would spend at least 12-and-a-half years behind bars when he was jailed for life for killing his own mother on Tuesday.
The 47-year-old attacked his mother Iris Owens with a chainsaw, strangled her and kicked her in the ribs at her home in Ystrad Mynach in May.
A pathologist confirmed the cause of the 75-year-old’s death was trauma to the head and neck.
She had a swollen and bruised eye from being punched, and five broken ribs.
Cardiff Crown Court heard on Tuesday that Owens was remorseful for the “tragic and senseless” killing and that mother and son had had a “close, loving and supportive relationship”.
But in 2008, Owens, then 39, was locked up for six-and-half years for his part in supplying £12,000 worth of class A drugs to the university town.
Owens was part of an eightstrong gang jailed for more than 30 years at Swansea Crown Court, after they were caught by cops as part of Operation Harrier, set up to target drugs peddlers.
He was also convicted in 2006 of heroin possession and given a 12-month community order.
Back in 2004 he was claiming to have been the victim of a bullying campaign in which his van was torched, his bins were burned, his door was kicked in and he was attacked twice in a week.
Left with a 12-inch gash to the head, he told the South Wales Echo he thought he was targeted at his home in Abercynon because he was from out of town.
“I don’t know if it’s because I am from Cardiff,” the then 35-year-old said.
“Or perhaps it is simply the idi- otic teenage minority getting boozed up on weekends and losing control – but they won’t drive me away.”
He said he was walking his Staffordshire terrier Zepha when four hoodies shouted: “Have it now.”
After he escaped he said a car mounted the pavement and knocked him down.
“Around a dozen just started kicking and punching me on the ground,” Owens said.
He “could have been beaten to death” if his neighbours had not intervened.
But this week, one of his neighbours in Abercynon said he came to Owens’ assistance and gave a different account of events.
“I opened my door to find out what was happening and this guy was getting a good kicking,” the source, who did not want to be named, said.
“Afterwards I found out he had been trying to sell drugs at school gates.
“I was not too pleased about that.”
The neighbour insisted Owens’ attackers were not youths.