A mother and her daughter were jailed for life today at the Old Bailey for murdering a man who vanished more than 10 years ago.
Shirley and Lynette Banfield were both jailed for life this afternoon. Mother Shirley was ordered to serve a minimum of 18 years and her daughter at least 16 years.
Retired bookmaker Don Banfield, 63, disappeared in May 2001 leaving wife Shirley and daughter Lynette free to claim his £60,000 share of the family house. They then forged his signature to claim his private and state pensions netting another £63,000.
Mr Banfield had planned to sell the house in Wealdstone, Kent, and start a new life on his own but the moment he put his name to the contract “he signed his own death warrant”, said prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC.
Police do not know how they killed their victim nor how they disposed of the body. But the secret may lie in Lynette’s creative writing notebook.
In different extracts, which the jury were never told about, she wrote about murdering a man, killing women with a pitchfork, putting a body in a car and burying bodies in woods.
She wrote that the body had only been in the car for minutes but the smell lingered. “Oh, thank heavens for the scrappage scheme,” she wrote. Her Ford Fiesta was compacted as part of the government scheme.
Tax official Shirley, 64, and Lynette, 40, were convicted today of murder having already admitted three counts of fraud and a charge of perverting the course of justice. They were being sentenced later. During the trial the jury heard of bizarre claims that Mr Banfield, described as “a gambler and womaniser”, had feared for his life after being tied to his bed by his wife.
There were also claims that he believed she would poison him. Mr Banfield had complained to the police, his doctor and an old friend that his wife and daughter were trying to kill him.
But when an officer visited on May 11, 2001, he said he wanted no further police action as he was going away. In court the women claimed his account of being tied to the bed was a joke. Shirley said that when a neighbour heard her shouting “one of these days I’ll kill you” she had been referring to her parrot.
