Accountant was murdered by his wife and daughter so they could live off his pension
THE callous wife and daughter of a man who went missing over a decade ago were yesterday jailed for life for murdering him for money – even though his body has never been found.
Shirley Banfield, 64, schemed with her daughter Lynette, 40, to kill Donald Banfield and dispose of his body in an audacious plot to get their hands on £123,000 from the sale of the family home and his pension pot.
The 63-year-old former BBC accountant and retired bookmaker mysteriously disappeared in 2001.
He vanished just days after threatening to leave his wife to start a new life and signing a contract to sell the family home.
Yesterday his wife of 31 years was jailed for life and told she will serve a minimum term of 18 years, while her daughter was locked up for at least 16 years after a jury found them guilty of murder.
Father-of-four Mr Banfield was planning to use his pension and money from the sale of their semi- detached house in Wealdstone, North West London, to fund his retirement in his native Trinidad. But he vanished on May 11, 2001. In the days before his disappearance, he had desperately tried to warn his friends, doctor and even the police that his wife, a retired tax inspector, and his daughter were trying to kill him.
He told his doctor he had woken in the middle of the night to find himself handcuffed to the bed and his legs tied as his wife attempted to suffocate him with a plastic bag. He also told friends he had
‘Driven by pure greed’
been hit over the head as he slept and his daughter had tried to spray furniture polish into his eyes.
On another occasion, his wife produced a knife, shouting: ‘Why don’t you die?’
Mr Banfield begged his son Kevin, 43, to let him move in with him.
Two days before he disappeared Mr Banfield told police his wife and daughter were trying to kill him, but he asked them not to take any action, saying he could not risk Mrs Banfield knowing he had contacted officers.
Then, within days of his disappearance, his shameless wife and daughter began helping themselves to his £29,000 pension from his time at bookmaker William Hill and a state pension worth £34,000.
Within a few weeks, they had also sold the house, netting £60,000.
Neither reported him missing and it was not until May 19 that his friend Rod Mcintosh went to the police.
But Mrs Banfield claimed her husband was a serial womaniser who often left them.
She gave officers a false description, providing a photofit that even her son didn’t recognise, and without a body, the case was dropped.
The mother and daughter’s plot unravelled when Mr Banfield’s former employer William Hill became suspicious about them constantly moving house. When police carried out a routine review of the case in 2009, Mrs Banfield attempted to cover her tracks, insisting her husband had visited over Christmas 2008.
But police arrested them in February 2010. After being bailed, the pair splashed out £27,000 on a luxury holiday to Grenada.
Detectives later recovered a chilling notebook in which Miss Banfield wrote about murdering a man, killing women with a pitchfork, burying bodies and putting a body in a car.
She wrote that the body had been in the car for only minutes but the smell lingered on, adding: ‘ Oh, thank heavens for the scrappage scheme.’
The women’s Ford Fiesta car was compacted as part of the Government’s scheme in 2008.
The mother and daughter were charged with murder last year.
Yesterday, Mrs Banfield collapsed in the dock as the jury returned guilty verdicts.
The Recorder of London, Judge Peter Beaumont, QC, told her and her daughter: ‘The three aggravating features are premeditation, commission of your offence for gain and concealment of the body.’
The pair had already admitted conspiracy to defraud, forgery and perverting the course of justice. Detectives still have no idea what happened to Mr Banfield.
They dug up the garden of his former home in 2009, but nothing was found.
Police plan to speak to his wife and daughter in prison to see whether they will reveal the location of his body.
In an extraordinary twist, it can now be revealed that Mrs Banfield’s brother, Kenneth Hagon, worked as a grave digger.
Though there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by him, police said they plan to revisit the ‘line of inquiry’ which could lead to graves Mr Hagon worked on being exhumed in the continuing hunt for the body.
Mr Hagon declined to comment yesterday. His partner Audrey Harrison said she found the case ‘disturbing’.
In a statement read to the court, Mr Banfield’s sister Kay Hackett said: ‘ When Don went missing in May 2001, a wave of shock ran through his closest and extended family. Not knowing where he was and whether he was alive was a constant ache in everyone’s hearts.
‘His mother, Irene, sadly died knowing that he was missing, longing for news of his safe return.’
Met Police Detective Chief Inspector Howard Groves said: ‘Shirley and Lynette’s actions were driven by pure greed. They have consistently deceived the police and other agencies in a bid to cover their tracks.’
Yesterday Donald Banfield’s first wife Lucille described Shirley Banfield as a manipulative liar.
She told the Daily Mail: ‘It didn’t surprise me that she killed him.
‘The last thing Don told his friend Rod Mcintosh was, “Do not let them get away with my murder”.’