Daughter and son agreed to kill gran, murder trial told
APENSIONER was murdered by her daughter who fed her a “cocktail of crushed tablets and alcohol” and her grandson who then deliberately killed her “probably by smothering her with an object”, a court has heard.
Barry Rogers and Penelope John came under suspicion four years after Betty Guy’s death when an ex-partner of Rogers told police he said he had killed his grandmother by putting a pillow over her face.
The 33-year-old former soldier and his 50-year-old mother, who deny murder, went on trial at Swansea Crown Court yesterday.
The court heard John called the emergency services to her 84-year-old mother’s home in Johnston, Pembrokeshire, on November 7, 2011. She told them she thought her mother had died and claimed Mrs Guy had been suffering from stomach and bowel cancer.
Two doctors examined Mrs Guy’s body but no post-mortem examination was carried out and a death certificate was issued listing her causes of death as broncho-pneumonia, septicaemia and hypertensive heart disease.
Mrs Guy’s body was cremated on
November 11, the court heard.
Paul Lewis QC, prosecuting, said Mr Guy’s ex-girlfriend, Sandra Adams, reported him to the police in November 2015.
“Barry Rogers had told her that both he and his mother, Penelope John, had been involved in the death of his grandmother,” he said. “He told Ms Adams in essence that he had smothered Mrs Guy by putting a pillow over her face.”
Mr Lewis said Mrs Guy, a retired nurse, suffered from some health complaints in the years and months leading up to her death, but there was nothing in her medical history to suggest she was suffering from cancer and she was not terminally ill.
Officers found two other previous partners of Rogers who said he had told about his part in Mrs Guy’s death.
John, of St Dogmaels, and Rogers, of Fishguard, were arrested on October 6, 2016.
Mr Lewis said police installed covert recording equipment in John’s home while they were in custody being interviewed.
“Almost from the moment that the defendants arrived back at Penelope John’s home having been released from custody in the early hours of October 6, 2016, they were recorded speaking about Mrs Guy’s death,” he told jurors. “Suffice to say that both defendants were heard discussing Mrs Guy’s death in terms which were inconsistent with her having died naturally and peacefully.”
Mr Lewis said John could be heard on the recording telling her son she had been arrested for murder.
Rogers responded “but I did it”, before adding that he had told officers Mrs Guy was dead before he arrived at the house, the court heard.
The court was told 20 minutes later Rogers was heard to say to his mother: “No, honestly, you have got nothing to worry about, it’s me that’s the one that’s done the act.”
The court heard both defendants denied being involved in Mrs Guy’s death in police interview and said her death had been natural.
Mr Lewis said: “In short, we allege that the two defendants together agreed to end the life of Mrs Guy at a time to be decided. On the late evening of Sunday, November 6, 2001, Penelope John summoned her son to Mrs Guy’s home to put their plan into operation.
“Penelope John gave her mother a cocktail of crushed tablets and alcohol and Mr Rogers then deliberately killed her, probably by smothering her with an object such as a cushion or pillow.”
Mr Lewis said that it may have been, in November 2011, that Mrs Guy was “unwell” and she was “certainly elderly” and frail but she was not terminally ill. He added: “Even if she had been, however, the law still does not permit the killing of one person by another in circumstances such as this.”
The court heard Ms Adams and Rogers started a relationship in early 2015. Mr Lewis said Rogers told her about Mrs Guy’s death during a heart-to-heart.
“He told Ms Adams that he had drunk a glass of whisky before putting a pillow over his nan’s face,” he said.
“He said his nan had been fighting him so he had stopped.
“He said he had then had another glass of whisky and had put a pillow over her face a second time. “He said that this time ‘she just went’.”
Mr Lewis said because Mrs Guy was cremated it was now impossible for there to be conclusive medical evidence about her cause of death.
John and Rogers both deny murder and the alternative allegation of manslaughter.
The trial continues.