Jail for grandmother's murderer

Hussey tried to get family and friends to lie to police

A woman who murdered her grandmother by battering her over the head with a spade while in bed has been jailed.

Joanne Hussey, 33, was told by a judge at Leeds Crown Court she must serve at least 20 years in prison for killing 76-year-old Annie Garbutt.

Hussey, of Yeadon, Leeds was convicted last month during a trial in which she admitted manslaughter, claiming voices in her head told her to do it.

The court heard Hussey knew she would gain financially from the killing.

Mrs Garbutt was murdered by the mother-of-one at the elderly woman's cottage in Mirfield when she was repeatedly hit over the head and chest with a spade on 7 May 2007 and left her lying in pools of blood.

The pensioner suffered multiple cuts and fractures during the attack.

Mrs Garbutt had lived alone for 11 years since her husband's death

Sentencing Hussey, Judge Scott Wolstenholme said: "It is clear that at some point during the attack you were either kneeling or sitting on her chest. She must have suffered greatly.

"You then took considerable care in removing the evidence that might connect you to the killing."

The court heard Hussey had been worried about the financial implications of Mrs Garbutt, an Alzheimer's sufferer, going into a home.

She initially told police that she had found her grandmother dead in her bedroom but later admitted to killing her and said that she suffered from a mental abnormality.

During the trial it emerged Hussey was not aware she was she was not included in her grandmother's will but knew she would indirectly gain from the money her mother inherited.

Police who worked on the case described Hussey as "an accomplished liar" who committed a "particularly brutal and callous" crime motivated by greed.