Scott Paterson admitted he had twice considered killing his landlady before suffocating her in 2023. Photo / Bedfordshire Police
Scott Paterson admitted he had twice considered killing his landlady before suffocating her in 2023. Photo / Bedfordshire Police
A farm shop butcher who dismembered his 74-year-old landlady and then sent Christmas cards to her family has been jailed for at least 19 years.
Scott Paterson, 45, suffocated Annette Smith with a pillow at their shared home in Fairfield, Bedfordshire, and later dismembered her body with a kitchen knife,Luton Crown court was told on Monday.
The “evil” man hid the pensioner’s remains in a storage unit in November last year, pretending she was still alive by sending emails from her account and Christmas cards to her family.
Smith’s family raised welfare concerns with Bedfordshire Police in January, but officers said there was insufficient evidence to deem her a missing person.
On April 15, police issued an appeal for information about Smith’s whereabouts after her family found her passport, mobile phone and laptop at her home. The investigation was upgraded to a murder inquiry five days later.
Paterson initially told police Smith had left their home with an unknown woman but later made a full admission, directing police to the storage unit in Letchworth. In court, he pleaded guilty to murder.
Judge Edward Murray described Paterson’s actions as “awful” and “callous” before sentencing him to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 19 years and 178 days.
The court heard Paterson had met Smith 14 years earlier, when she offered him rent-free accommodation after he experienced a relationship breakdown.
Paterson and Smith went on holiday together and hosted dinner parties before she suffered a stroke in 2018, which limited her mobility and turned Paterson into her carer.
In 2023, her estranged husband Peter Smith, who held a 20% stake in the home, asked her to sell the property because of his struggling business.
Although Smith initially did not want to move out, Paterson encouraged her to go through with a sale as she had become “more demanding” since her stroke.
Annette Smith let Paterson live with her.
Suffocation
After Smith agreed to speak to estate agents, Paterson suffocated her on November 8 last year. The estate agency continued to market the property after her death, of which it was unaware.
Paterson drank a bottle of wine before dragging the body into the bathroom, then into a cupboard under the stairs to avoid the suspicions of a photographer sent by the estate agency.
Paterson, who was working on a deli and butcher counter at a farm shop at the time, later dismembered Smith, wrapping her body parts in plastic bags and hiding her torso in a black suitcase.
He said he had considered killing Smith at least twice before and, having racked up £30,000 in credit card debt, admitted he had been stealing and selling her jewellery on Cash4Gold.
Smith’s stepson, Jason Smith, described his stepmother as a “very kind and caring person” who was “always there for me throughout the years”.
He told the courtroom he had initially believed the defendant, described by other witnesses as a “gentle giant”, was a “nice guy”, but that in reality he was an “evil man”. He added: “I will never forgive [him] for what he did. I hate him from the bottom of my heart.”
