Mother and son on trial for alleged murder plot against his grandmother

A man smothered his grandmother with a pillow after his mother had given the elderly woman a cocktail of crushed tablets and whisky before calling 999 to claim she had died of natural causes, a jury has heard.

Barry Rogers, 33, and his mother Penelope John, 50, are accused of killing Betty Guy, 84, at the latter’s home in Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales, in 2011.

Details of the alleged murder plot emerged five years later, when a former girlfriend of Rogers told police he had admitted killing his grandmother. Police arrested the former soldier and his mother in 2016 and installed listening devices in her home.

John was heard telling her son that she had been arrested for murder, and Rogers allegedly replied: “But I did it.”

Rogers was also allegedly heard saying: “No, honestly, you have got nothing to worry about, it’s me that’s done the act … There’s nothing to worry about. Nothing to worry about. Keep our story the same.”

Paul Lewis, prosecuting, claimed the exchanges showed mother and son had plotted to murder the elderly woman.

“Such conversations, we submit, are not consistent with Mrs Guy simply having suffered a natural and peaceful death,” he told the jury. “It may be that in November 2011 Mrs Guy was unwell, she was certainly elderly and frail but she was not terminally ill.

“We submit that what the defendants did, and whatever their motivation, was wholly unlawful and each of them is therefore guilty of murder.”

Rogers, of Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, and John, of nearby St Dogmaels, deny murder and manslaughter.

Lewis told the jury that mother and son had agreed to end Guy’s life. He said: “On the late evening of Sunday 6 November 2011, Penelope John summoned her son to Mrs Guy’s home to put their plan into operation.

“Penelope John gave her mother a cocktail of crushed tablets and alcohol, and Barry Rogers then deliberately killed her, probably by smothering her with an object such as a cushion or pillow.”

Swansea crown court heard John rang 999 and told call handlers that her mother had been suffering bowel and stomach cancer and she believed that she had died.

Guy was found with “small pinpoint bruising” on the left side of her face and around her mouth but no postmortem was carried out and she was cremated.

The court heard there were no records of Guy having cancer and the prosecution claimed she was not terminally ill.

Rogers was living with a woman called Rhianne Morris in Frome, Somerset, in November 2011 when he got a call from his mother and was allegedly heard saying: “It’s time is it?”

He drove to Guy’s home in Johnston in Pembrokeshire, and later called his partner saying his nan had “gone”, the jury heard.

Lewis said: “When Barry Rogers subsequently returned to Frome he told Ms Morris that his mum had given his nan a bottle of whisky and a load of tablets.”

When their relationship began to break down, Rogers allegedly said to Morris: “You want to be careful or I’ll do to you what I did to her.” The court also heard that he also said: “Socks didn’t work, but a pillow did.”

The court was told that after the pair split, Rogers admitted the killing to another partner, Sandra Adams. She went to the police in November 2015 and the investigation was launched.

Lewis said: “He told Ms Adams that he had drunk a glass of whisky before putting a pillow over his nan’s face. He said that his nan had been fighting him, so he stopped.

“He said he had then had another glass of whisky and had put a pillow over her face a second time. He said that this time ‘she just went’.”

Lewis said because Guy was cremated it was impossible for there to be conclusive medical evidence about her cause of death.



When Rogers was interviewed by police, he denied being in the house when Guy died and said he arrived afterwards, the court heard. Rogers suggested collusion between the witnesses who claimed he told them he helped Guy die.



In her interview, John denied she was responsible for her mother’s death and said she found her body after getting up to go to the toilet.

During the conversation recorded secretly by police, Rogers said to John: “Are you starting to crack?” The pair allegedly expressed concern that there could be an incriminating text between them.

Rogers said: “But it’s fucking technology like, a slip of a word here or there an’ it’s fucking, we’re in deep shit like, we’re in jail for life.”

The trial continues.