News

Betty Guy ‘murdered by her daughter and grandson’

Published

6 years ago

January 9, 2018

Tom Sinclair

BETTY GUY was murdered by her own daughter and grandson, a jury heard today (Jan 9).

Penelope John fed her crushed transquilisers and alcohol and Barry Rogers smothered her with a pillow, it was alleged.

John, aged 50, of Union Terrace, St Dogmaels, and Rogers, 32, of High Street, Fishguard, deny murdering 84 year old Mrs Guy on November 7, 2011, at her home in Hillcroft, Johnston, near Haverfordwest.

Paul Lewis QC, prosecuting at Swansea Crown Court, said at first Mrs Guy’s death was put down to natural causes and her body was cremated soon afterwards.

But in the following years, he alleged, Rogers made a series of confessions to women he later had relationships with.

And police tape recorded more confessions after they secretly bugged John’s home and heard both of them discussing what they had done.

They included, said Mr Lewis, Rogers telling his mother: “But I did it. No honestly you have got nothing to worry about, it’s me that’s the one that’s done the act.”

Later they became concerned about whether Rogers had spoken about John putting tablets into Mrs Guy’s whiskey on a mobile telephone or put it in a text.

Rogers could be heard saying, softly, to John: “Are you starting to crack? Keep our story the same.”

John was taped saying: “No, I can’t remember. Did I text you when I said I crushed the diazepam up and I crushed zopiclone and put it in her….

“No, I would not have text that to you Barry. On reflection, I would have told you on the telephone.”

Rogers allegedly replied, “On the phone, yeah. I’m sure we spoke on the phone about it.”

Another recording caught Rogers, referring again to mobile telephones, saying to John: “But it’s f***ing technology like, a slip of a word here or there and we are in deep s**t like, we’re in jail for life.”

Mr Lewis said the prosecution case was that both Rogers and John had decided to end Mrs Guy’s life.

At 2.48am on November 7 John dialled 999 and said her mother had died. She said she had been suffering from stomach and bowel cancer, both of which were untrue.

She also said Rogers was in the house.

Because Mrs Guy was to be cremated her body was examined by two doctors. Dr Roger Burns noted small pinpoint bruising on the left side of her face.

No postmortem was carried out and the cremation went ahead at Narberth.

Rogers developed a relationship with Sandra Adams, who had been a junior school pupil in Haverfordwest with him many years before.

In November, 2015, Miss Adams went to the police to say Rogers had told her that he had smothered his grandmother with a pillow and an investigation began.

Detectives traced his estranged wife, Lisa Watkins, and another woman he had had a relationship with, Rhianne Morris.

Mr Lewis said they discovered that Rogers had also confessed to them.

The defendants were arrested on October 5, 2016.

While they were being interviewed bugs were placed at John’s home and on their release Rogers was granted bail on the condition he stayed with his mother.

“Almost as soon as they got in they began to talk,” said Mr Lewis.

When Rogers was re-interviewed and told about the tape recordings, he claimed to have made the statements ‘to take the p**s out of you pigs’.

Rogers, a former soldier, told police he knew the house had been bugged because he had bought a bug detector on EBay the day after he and his mother had been released on bail.

But, said Mr Lewis, the incriminating conversations had been recorded in the early hours of the morning or their release and ‘well before Barry Rogers could possibly have bought any bug detector’.

Mr Lewis said Rhianne Morris had told them that in 2010 she had moved in with Rogers, then living at 6 Rhydyfelin, Cardigan. Later, they moved to Frome in Somerset.

Late on November 6, 2011, Rogers received a telephone call from his mother and he could be heard saying: “It’s time, is it?”

Rogers then drove to Johnston and telephoned Miss Morris in the early hours of the following day to say ‘his Nan had gone’.

He allegedly told Miss Morris that John had given Mrs Guy ‘a load of tablets and a bottle of whiskey’.

Their relationship deteriorated and during a heated argument Rogers allegedly said to Miss Morris: “You want to be careful, or I’ll do to you want I did to her.”

Rogers allegedly picked up a pillow and held it to his face, saying to Miss Morris: “I’ll do it while you’re sleeping and you won’t know.”

Both John and Rogers deny having any involvement in Mrs Guy’s death.

t was now too late for anyone to prove medically how Betty Guy died, the jury heard.

Her body was cremated four days after her death.

But, said Paul Lewis QC, the prosecution would still show that she was suffocated as the result of an agreement between the two defendants.

After police had become suspicious about how she had died a Home Office forensic pathologist, Dr Deryck James, had reviewed her medical history and the notes made by the two doctors who had examined her body before she had been cremated.

Dr James concluded that although she had suffered ill health she had not any terminal illness.

Dr James said he noted that bruising had been visible on Mrs Guy’s face.

“In his opinion where a person is found dead, is face up and has not been the subject of any resuscitation attempts, then such petechiae (bruising) warrant further investigation because they raise the question of there having been pressure applied to the face or neck and thus the possibility of suffocation.

“However, such petechiae do not point inexorably to there having been an obstruction to Mrs Guy’s breathing and, from a medical standpoint, Dr James cannot now rule out that Mrs Guy suffered a natural death.

“The medical evidence cannot therefore provide any certainty as to how Mrs Guy died.”

He told the jury, “You will have to decide upon all the evidence that you hear.

“Did she die of natural causes as the defendants contend or, as we allege, was she suffocated as the result of an agreement reached between the two defendants.

“We submit, however, that she did not die from natural causes and that the defendants did not tell the truth in interview.

“Instead, they lied to try and conceal the arrangement they had made and the steps that they took to end Mrs Guy’s life.”

The trial continues and is expected to last for three weeks.

Community

County Hall to offer space for community banking

Published

18 hours ago

April 23, 2024

Bruce Sinclair Local Democracy Reporter

A CALL for Pembrokeshire County Council to potentially change its banking arrangement with Barclays, after it closed its Haverfordwest branch has been turned down, but County Hall is to offer space for community banking.

Barclays Bank, on the town’s High Street, is to close on May 10.

The council has had a banking services contract with Barclays since 2013.

Councillor Huw Murphy, in a notice of motion heard by Pembrokeshire County Council’s Cabinet meeting of April 22, asked the council to review its banking arrangements with Barclays following the announced closure.

e said the loss of a branch “not only impacts upon town centres and businesses but also disproportionately impacts the elderly who are less likely to embrace on-line banking options”.

A report for Cabinet members said, in terms of the impact on Pembrokeshire residents, Barclays has said that it is “not leaving Haverfordwest and [will] continue to provide face-to-face support for those who need it” via community locations.

Two options were presented to Cabinet: to retender the banking services contract, and, the favoured, to work with Barclays to ensure a community location is set up in Haverfordwest.

Members heard the costs associated with moving to a new banking service provider could be in excess of £50,000.

For the second, favoured option, members heard Barclays was in discussions with the council about a location for potential community banking.

Cabinet Member for Corporate Finance Cllr Alec Cormack, after outlining the risks in the report for members, and moving the notice be not adopted, said he had “considerable sympathy” with Cllr Murphy’s notice.

He told councillors there was a glimmer of light for banking arrangements in the county, with an agreement now signed for two ground floor rooms at County Hall, Haverfordwest, to be used for community banking.

From April 25, the rooms will be available on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, members heard.

Cabinet Member for Planning & Housing Delivery Cllr Jon Harvey also said he had “a lot of sympathy” for the motion, adding: “It’s excellent news a deal has been struck to occupy the ground floor rooms three days a week; hopefully this will mitigate, to a certain amount, the closure.

“If we can work with the respective banks to get a community-type approach let’s move forward.”

News

Haverfordwest interchange: Next stage of £19m project backed

Published

19 hours ago

April 23, 2024

Bruce Sinclair Local Democracy Reporter

The second stage of building Haverfordwest’s near-£19m transport interchange has been backed, with senior councillors hearing it could cost the council more to not support it.

The transport interchange, which includes an integrated bus station and construction of a new multi-storey car park, is part of a wider series of regeneration projects in the county town.

The total cost of the scheme in the approved budget is £18.881m, £1.987m from Pembrokeshire County Council; the remainder, £16.894m, from an already-awarded Welsh Government grant.

To date, £3.425m has been spent on advanced works, including the demolition of the old multi-storey car park and a temporary bus station.

Members of Pembrokeshire County Council’s Cabinet, meeting on April 22, were recommended to approve the award of the Stage 2 construction contract for the Haverfordwest Transport Interchange.

The report for members listed two simple options for Cabinet, to authorise the award of a contract, recommended, or to not.

For the latter it warned: “It is envisaged Welsh Government will withdraw the funding awarded and the council would need to repay grants received to date; £10.322m has been received to date of which £3.376m has been offset against expenditure.”

It added: “Cost to cease this project could cost PCC more in terms of grant repayment and any capital work required to make good. PCC match contribution for the project is forecast as £1.987m of the £18.881m.”

Planning permission for the interchange was granted in 2022, with a temporary bus station constructed that year and the old multi-storey building demolished in 2023.

That year, members of the county council’s Cabinet agreed a temporary car park will be sited on the demolished remains of the old multi-storey car park until the Haverfordwest Public Transport Interchange – delayed as no compliant tender had been found at the time – is built.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Leader Cllr Paul Miller said: “The interchange is an important part of the regeneration of Haverfordwest, it will not regenerate Haverfordwest on its own, it is part of a wider process. The alternative to us being engaged is we simply allow it to decline and fail.”

He said the interchange was about “making it easier to visit Haverfordwest,” making parking provision “really straightforward, making it easy and convenient as possible”.

Cllr Miller said not progressing with the scheme would risk the grants already obtained, meaning the council could potentially foot the bill for costs to date, at a greater level than progressing.

He said the cost options were a near-£2m subsidised council involvement for the whole scheme or the £3m-plus spent to date if the scheme was ended, which would leave the car park as it is now.

“It’s pretty reasonable that if they give us the money and we don’t build a transport interchange they’ll be looking for that money back,” Cllr Miller said.

He said previous figures from parking revenue – back in 2019 – amounted to £100,000 a year; and could be expected to at least double on a “like-for-like” basis following the increase in parking charges.

Members, after a private and confidential session over the actual contract details, agreed to proceed with the scheme, awarding the contract to Kier Construction Western and Wales.

Charity

RNLI prepare for summer with medical training exercise in Pembrokeshire

Published

2 days ago

April 22, 2024

Tom Sinclair

RNLI lifeguards from the north Pembrokeshire team, volunteers from St Davids RNLI and St Davids Coastguard Rescue Team came together at Whitesands beach on Thursday (18 April), for a multi-agency medical training exercise. Pembrokeshire RNLI lifeguards and St Davids volunteer lifeboat crew took part in a multi-agency medical training exercise alongside St Davids Coastguard Rescue Team in preparation for the upcoming summer season.

The Coastal Medicine programme was set up six years ago at the suggestion of clinicians from Hywel Dda University Health Board. The aim of the programme is train lifeguards, lifeboat crews and HM Coastguard teams in working collaboratively when responding to medical incidents on the coast.

Clinicians from Hywel Dda work with RNLI staff to design exercises simulating mass-casualty incidents on land and afloat. The exercises allow lifeguards, lifeboat crews and Coastguard teams to practise and test their rescue response and casualty care.

The simulated incident at Whitesands involved a medical incident at sea leading to a boat going out of control and ploughing through a group of swimmers causing multiple injuries. RNLI lifeguards responded to casualties on the beach while St Davids inshore and all-weather lifeboat crews dealt with the situation at sea. St Davids Coastguard Rescue supported RNLI colleagues as they would in a real-life scenario.

In total there were six casualties to treat, all of whom were given the immediate medical care by the teams on scene. As in a real-life scenario, they were then prepared to be handed over to the care of the Ambulance Service.

Roger Smith, RNLI Area Lifesaving Manager said: ‘The scenario was based on a real-life incident, it’s so important that we train in dealing with challenging situations.

‘The RNLI lifeguards, lifeboat crew, and the Coastguard rescue team worked really well together collaborating together to achieve the best possible result.

‘The feedback from all the participants was really positive, and our medical colleagues were very complimentary about the competence shown and the inter-agency co-operation.

‘This scenario training gives confidence to our lifeguards and lifeboat crews, and ensures the teamwork and communication is already in place ready for real-life incidents.’

Martin Charlton, an RNLI lifeguard in north Pembrokeshire said:

‘Last night’s exercise was a great opportunity for me and my colleagues on the lifeguard team to upskill ahead of the summer season.

‘We regularly attend incidents in the season that require a multi-agency response. These scenarios are a brilliant opportunity to prepare for the the most challenging situations.

‘The team and I thoroughly enjoyed the exercise and feel better prepared for the season as a result.

‘It’s always a pleasure working alongside the Coastguard rescue team and the lifeboat as one crew.’