‘Die in jail’...fury at mum and son who murdered granny, 84
AN IRAQ war veteran and his mother deserve to die in jail for murdering his 84-year-old grandmother, relatives said yesterday.
Ex-soldier Barry Rogers smothered Betty Guy with a pillow after his mother Penelope John fed her a cocktail of pills and whisky.
Yesterday they were jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 11 years.
Rogers’ other grandmother, Margaret John – Penelope John’s mother-inlaw – said: “What they did to that little old lady should have meant them staying in prison for life.
“They should not be on the streets ever again. Life should mean life.”
Mrs John, 85, added: “I believe it could have been me. I will be glad to get him out of society behind bars. I disowned him years ago. We believe there is something evil about him.”
John sobbed as she was jailed for murdering her mother.
She has been beaten up in jail by other women inmates and her food has been spat on, a court heard.
The pair claimed former nurse Mrs Guy was suffering from cancer and wanted to die. But there was no evidence of terminal illness and she was “cheerful, lively and well-liked”.
Doctors believed the pensioner had died from natural causes at her home in Johnston, Pembrokeshire, in November 2011. Rogers, 33, and John, 50, were convinced they had got away with murder after she was cremated.
But the former Royal Corps of Signals technician bragged to three girlfriends that he had killed his nan.
The pair were arrested in November 2016 and police later bugged Rogers’ home and heard him tell his mother: “It’s me that’s the one that’s done the act.”
Rogers, of Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, and John, of nearby St Dogmaels, were found guilty of murder on Wednesday. They were jailed yesterday at Swansea Crown Court.
In an impact statement, Mrs Guy’s daughter Lorraine Matthews said her mother loved life and “a giggle”.
She added: “We grieved once after her death and now we have to go through a different kind of grief.”
She said she was shocked “that a member of my own family is capable of committing such a despicable act on an old lady”. John claimed her mother had stomach and bowel cancer. She said a doctor had confirmed the condition was terminal. But he insisted no such conversation took place.
John claimed she loved her mother. She told the court she inherited only a washing machine and a tumble dryer after Mrs Guy’s death.
Her son’s boasts and taped admissions had all been a “joke”, John said.
Christopher Henley, defending Rogers, said he “loved his nan truly and deeply”. Mr Justice Lewis told the killers: “What you did was murder.”