Killed for her life savings

By Chris Summers
BBC News

Two brothers have been jailed for life for the murder of an elderly woman and terrorising another family. Was it pure greed that triggered a night of violence?

Ms Chung was stamped and kicked to death in her own home

So-called "home invasions" such as those carried out by three men in a prosperous suburb of west London on bonfire night in 2006 are quite rare in the UK.

The trio were looking for cash and valuables but only got away with a ring, a mobile phone and a Volkswagen Golf car, which they abandoned.

Kam Fum Chung, 65, had run a Chinese restaurant in Yiewsley, near Uxbridge, since her husband Kun Wah died in 1985.

Returned home at midnight

While her stepson, Chi Ming, did the cooking Mrs Chung - known to all as Helen - concentrated on the financial side of the business and kept the accounts.

On 5 November 2006, Mrs Chung arrived back at her home in nearby Cowley just before midnight after dropping off her stepson.

I thought, well, if I'm going to die tonight I'd rather die like a man than a dog Bernard Dwyer 'How I fought off burglars' Aftermath of the crime

Lying in wait for her were Dean and Michael Atkins and their friend, Thomas Carty, who drank in a pub next door to the Chinese restaurant and are believed to have heard rumours of her secret stash of cash.

The day before the raid, Dean Atkins had walked out of Standford Hill open prison in Sheerness, Kent, where he had been serving a sentence for a burglary.

The gang dragged her inside and subjected her to a terrifying ordeal as they tried to find out where she kept her life savings.

Mrs Chung, who was only 4ft 10ins tall and weighed seven stone, refused to acquiesce and, after being dragged up and down the stairs and being beaten, kicked and stamped on, she died of her injuries.

The frustrated killers left her bloodied body in the living room and drove off in her car.

Detectives would later discover her life savings - £90,000 in cash - hidden in a plastic bag in her garage.

The gang's next pre-selected target was self-made businessman Bernard Dwyer, who lived in Uxbridge and, according to the criminal grapevine, kept money in a safe at his home.

His wife was away and he was at home with his son Danny, 18, and his 13-year-old daughter, Aisling.

'Kicked across the room'

The gang, who were masked and armed with a crowbar, a knife, a knuckleduster and a pistol - which later turned out to be fake - woke up Mr Dwyer and threatened him and his family.

Mr Dwyer, who had built up his own scaffolding business, told the trial: "I was kicked across the room and beaten into the corner. These guys were kicking me and beating me in the ribs."

You were prepared to use extreme violence that night. You took part in two attacks on innocent householders. Judge Steven Kramer

He said he had never before seen "this level of violence, not even in those action movies [set] in Vietnam".

One of the gang held a knife at Aisling's throat and she screamed when he ordered her father to give them the money.

Simon Denison, prosecuting, told the jury Mr Dwyer's response was "extraordinary and heroic".

He said: "He fought back. Although there were three of them and he was unarmed and virtually naked, he wrestled the gun from them and beat them back until they fled empty-handed."

Mr Dwyer said the gang were out of control and he recalled: "I thought, well, if I'm going to die tonight I'd rather die like a man than a dog."

'Mental scars'

Mr Denison said Aisling was physically unharmed, but added: "Imagine the mental scars she has, and probably always will have."

The killers eventually dumped Mrs Chung's car, which they set on fire. But police tracked them down and arrested them.

Carty hanged himself while on remand at Belmarsh prison but the Atkins brothers pleaded not guilty at the start of the Old Bailey trial.

Michael Atkins sought to point the finger at Carty, whose DNA was found on the handle of the gun and on the face of Mrs Chung.

Atkins claimed he could not remember the night of 5 November because he had been "out of his face" after drinking for hours.

Carty was found hanged in his cell at Belmarsh prison in February last year

He claimed he woke up in the morning in a girlfriend's flat to find Carty, covered in blood, asleep on the sofa.

An inquest returned a suicide verdict on Carty after hearing he hanged himself and left a note expressing remorse and apologising for the "shame" he had brought on his family.

Dean Atkins, 26, and his 25-year-old brother were convicted of murder, aggravated burglary, wounding and possessing an imitation firearm on Tuesday.

Michael Atkins was out of jail on licence at the time.

The judge ordered they serve a minimum of 35 years behind bars.

It is not the first time an elderly woman has been killed for her life savings.

Two years ago, identical twins Robert and Jonathan Maskell were jailed for killing their 74-year-old step-grandmother after ransacking her house looking for her £3,000 life savings.

In December 2002, a couple battered to death 93-year-old Bridget Skehan, again in London, while looking for £49,000 in cash she kept in a shoebox.