Iris Owens murder: Drug addict son killed mother with chainsaw as she hung out washing

Victim: Iris Owens
PA
Hatty Collier31 October 2016
WEST END FINAL

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A son murdered his elderly mother with a chainsaw as she hung out the washing in their garden, a court heard today.

Robert Owens kicked, strangled and attacked Iris Owens, 75, with a power tool in Ystrad Mynach, near Caerphilly, Wales, on May 3 this year.

The 47-year-old appeared at Cardiff Crown Court to be sentenced for the murder, which he admitted at a hearing on September 9.

Prosecuting, Christopher Clee QC, said the fatal attack happened in the garden of the home where Mrs Owens, a widowed mother-of-two, lived with her son who had separated from his wife in 2006.

"He killed her with a chainsaw," he said. "The cause of death was trauma to the head and neck."

Mr Clee said neighbours saw Mrs Owens, a widowed mother-of-two, hanging out her washing at about 5pm on May 3 before hearing a loud ‘oi’ or ‘ah’ sound and a chainsaw starting in the garden.

"The precise sequence is unclear but at 5.21pm the defendant rang for an ambulance," Mr Clee told the court.

In the 999 call, Owens said: "Yeah, my mother just went mad. I was chainsawing some wood.

"She's in the garden now, please help her. She's gone mad, she's not breathing, she went f****** mad. I've got to give her the kiss of life but she ain't doing nothing."

Paramedics arrived at the property at 5.40pm, finding Owens "very agitated" with blood on his hands and overalls and his mother lying on her back near a tree stump in the rear garden with a cut to the left side of her neck.

Owens attempted to perform CPR on his mother but it was "obvious she was dead", Mr Clee said. She was pronounced dead at 5.42pm.

Owens told a paramedic his mother had "gone berserk", adding "I'm going to jail".

Tests revealed morphine, heroin and cocaine in Owen’s system and when asked about his medical history, he admitted being a heroin addict.

The court heard Owens accepted strangling his mother and breaking her ribs by kicking her.

Friends said her relationship with Owens was "very motherly", adding that he was "odd" and sometimes "needy like a child who wanted attention".

Representing Owens, Simon Laws QC, said: “This was a close, loving and supportive relationship so to sit where he does today having done what he did is a very terrible thing.”

Mrs Justice Nicola Davies said she was adjourning sentence until Tuesday to reflect on the "tragic and unusual case".

Additional reporting by Press Association.

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