A man who confessed to killing his 74-year-old landlady before dismembering her and hiding her remains has been sentenced to life in prison.
Scott Paterson, 45, had lived as a tenant in Annette Smith’s home in Fairfield, Stotfold, for several years but then began caring for her while she was recovering from a stroke.
Scott Paterson, 45, had lived as a tenant in Annette Smith’s home in Fairfield, Stotfold, for several years but then began caring for her while she was recovering from a stroke.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Are you responsible for the death of Annette Smith?
00:03Yes.
00:04Okay. Right, tell me what's happened.
00:09Erm...
00:13I...
00:16suffocated her...
00:18in her bed, with a pillow.
00:21Okay.
00:22When was this?
00:23The 8th of November.
00:26Tell me in as much detail as you can.
00:29Mm-hm.
00:30What happened that day?
00:31So start wherever you need to start,
00:33but I need as much detail as you can give me.
00:37Take your time.
00:39Erm...
00:40Well, it happened in the evening, at night,
00:44erm...
00:46after Annette had fallen asleep.
00:49And, yeah, I...
00:53put a pillow over her face
00:55until she stopped breathing.
00:57And I left her in bed for the night.
01:01What was going through your mind?
01:06That day?
01:11I just wanted to get out of the situation.
01:15And as I say, in hindsight,
01:17there are obviously better ways to have done that,
01:21but...
01:23I... it just felt...
01:25I don't know, it just felt...
01:28When I sort of snapped, I suppose,
01:32it just felt like what I should do.
01:39And at what point did you decide to do that?
01:46I...
01:49I...
01:51I...
01:52I...
01:57You said there'd been a build-up?
01:59Yeah, I think I had thought about it for a little while beforehand.
02:03Mm-hm.
02:04When you say a little while, what does that mean to you?
02:06Erm...
02:09Maybe a few weeks.
02:11OK.
02:12Is that what you had been thinking for a few weeks?
02:15Yeah.
02:16Or were you thinking of other ways as well?
02:18No, that was what I was thinking.
02:22When you were suffocating her, did you at any point think to stop?
02:28I did for a split second,
02:30because I realised what I was doing was wrong.
02:36But then I kind of...
02:40..thought, I wasn't sure.
02:46I don't know, I just...
02:49..decided to carry on.
02:53Why did you go to those lengths to do that?
02:58To dispose of the body? Yeah.
03:00Because I thought if there wasn't a body, I'd...
03:04..I'd get away with it.