Ex-soldier and his mother to be sentenced for murdering grandmother

A former soldier and his mother are set to be sentenced to life in prison on Thursday for the murder of his 84-year-old grandmother.

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 they would both receive life sentences with the "appropriate" minimum term.

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 four-week 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)."

Rogers and John will be sentenced at 10.30am.

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