Mother and son jailed for life after murdering gran
AFORMER soldier and his mother killed his 84-year-old grandmother by giving her a cocktail of pills and whisky before smothering her out of a “misguided belief” that the murder was an “act of mercy”, a court has heard.
Barry Rogers, 33, and his mother, Penelope John, 50, will each serve at least 11 years for murdering former nurse Betty Guy at at her home in Pembrokeshire on November 7 2011.
At Swansea Crown Court yesterday, Mr Justice Lewis said the pair had “never accepted responsibility” and that what they had done was murder because the “law does not permit one person to end the life of another”.
He said: “The killing was based on the wrong and misguided belief that Mrs Guy was old and ill and wanted to die and that you should end her life. To that limited extent the murder was based on a belief – a misguided belief – held by each of you that the murder was an act of mercy.”
Rogers and John, who were found guilty after a trial, nearly got away with the killing but came under suspicion in 2015 after one of Rogers’ ex-girlfriends reported him to the police. It emerged that the former technician in the Royal Corps of Signals had told three former partners he had killed his “nan”.
AFORMER soldier who smothered his grandmother to death with a pillow has been jailed for life alongside his mother who gave the pensioner a cocktail of drink and drugs in a “despicable” killing.
Barry Rogers, 33, and Penny John, 50, were found guilty of killing former nurse Betty Guy at her Pembrokeshire home on November 7, 2011, by a jury at Swansea Crown Court on Tuesday.
The judge, Mr Justice Lewis, told them when they were convicted they would both receive life sentences with the “appropriate” minimum term.
Yesterday they were jailed for life, with each to serve a minimum of 11 years.
Sentencing the pair, Mr Justice Lewis said they committed the murder “on a belief, a misguided belief, held by each of you that the murder was an act of mercy”.
He said: “Mrs Guy was not terminally ill.
“She did not have any form of cancer. Mrs Guy had mobility problems but she was not bed-bound.
“She was in pain and had been prescribed a painkiller but there’s no evidence at all to suggest that Mrs Guy was suffering unbearable pain.
“You did not therefore kill Mrs Guy because she had, or you believed she had, a terminal illness. Again this was not a case where Mrs Guy was suffering or you believed she was suffering in unbearable pain and you wanted to bring that pain to an end... you believed Mrs Guy was old and ill and wanted to die and you believed that you should end her life.”
Mr Justice Lewis said Rogers and John had both agreed to end the life of Mrs Guy.
He said: “You each had your role to play. You, Ms John, decided that the time had come to kill your mother. You arranged for your son to come and carry out the killing, you gave your mother drugs, intending to sedate her.
“You, Barry Rogers, were the one to place the pillow over Mrs Guy’s face and to suffocate her.”
Mr Justice Lewis said Mrs Guy was a “cheerful, lively and well-liked person”.
During the sentencing hearing Mrs Guy’s daughter, Lorraine Matthews, said in a victim impact statement that her mother “loved life” and “loved a little giggle”.
The statement read by Jim Davis, for the prosecution, said: “We grieved once after her death and now we have to go through a different kind of grief.”
Ms Matthews said she was “shocked that a member of my own family is capable of committing such a despicable act on an old lady”.
She added: “My mother was in no way ill enough to warrant a mercy (killing). I had spoken to her doctor some months before and was reassured of her health... I find it difficult to come to terms with the fact that her life ended before it should have naturally.”
Christopher Henley QC, for Barry Rogers, said the “only way of explaining what happened is as a mercy killing”.
He said Rogers loved Mrs Guy “deeply and truly”.
“There’s no direct evidence of this but there appears to be a solid basis to believe that Betty Guy was a participant in discussions about what happened,” he added.
Mr Henley urged the court to act with “a degree of compassion”.
Nadine Radford QC, for John, said her client suffered from PTSD as a result of an “extremely abusive, extremely violent” relationship of 22 years with her “first love” who she met aged 16.
Ms Radford said prison would be more difficult for John because of her condition.
Of the reasons for the killing, she said: “There’s no motive for this, there’s no motive whatsoever. There’s no question there was some sort of violent motive... there’s no financial motive, quite the contrary, there’s every emotional reason for it to go the other way.”
Ms Radford urged the court to conclude that Mrs Guy’s death may have been a killing based on “care and love”.
Rogers, of Fishguard, who served as a technician in the Royal Corps of Signals, used a pillow to smother Mrs Guy after John, of St Dogmaels, fed her mother a cocktail of pills and whiskey.
The court heard during their fourweek trial how doctors initially thought Mrs Guy’s death was due to natural causes and her body was cremated within days of her death.
The mother and son came under suspicion four years later when it emerged Rogers had told former girlfriends that he killed his nan.
They were arrested in November 2016 and police bugged John’s home and recorded the pair speaking about the killing.
At one point Rogers could be heard saying: “Nothing to worry about. Keep our story the same.”
At another John said: “I can’t remember; did I text you when I said I crushed the diazepam up and crushed the zopiclone up and I put it in her... (indecipherable).”