Carer gets life for murder

A LIVE-IN carer was jailed for life at the Old Bailey yesterday for the 'appallingly brutal' murder of a wheelchair-bound pensioner.

Clare Bastow, 31, was told by Judge Robert Lymbery: 'Any murder is a terrible crime, but the circumstances of this particular one were appallingly brutal, involving a vicious attack on a defenceless lady.'

The court had been told that on 20 December last year, Bastow repeatedly banged 66-year-old Cathy O'Neill's head on the bathroom floor of her home in Shepherd's Bush, west London. She then stabbed Miss O'Neill, who suffered from a muscle-wasting disease, more than 50 times and slit her throat so she bled to death.

Bastow had denied the charge.