Susan Hawkey murder: Killer who 'terrorised' woman for Pin code jailed

A man who "terrorised" and then murdered a 71-year-old woman before stealing her bank card has been jailed for at least 31 years.

Xyaire Howard, 24, tied up and stripped Susan Hawkey to get her to reveal her Pin code, and then strangled her to prevent her blocking her card.

He then went on a £13,000 spending spree, the Old Bailey heard.

Her body was left to decompose at her home in Neasden, north-west London, for almost three weeks before being found.

Howard was found guilty of murder, two robberies, attempted robbery and fraud and was sentenced to life.

His girlfriend and accomplice Chelsea Grant was cleared of murder but sentenced to 15 years for three counts of robbery, one count of attempted robbery, and fraud.

After Ms Hawkey's murder, Grant searched online: "Is a dead body a very strong smell?"

The Neasden couple had repeatedly mugged Ms Hawkey, who lived alone, prior to her murder in September 2022.

A family member said they had been left to imagine the nightmare of what happened to Ms Hawkey "over and over again".

Judge Judy Khan KC said that Ms Hawkey was an "incredibly vulnerable woman" who had been left "stripped and degraded".

But the judge accepted Grant was not present when the murder took place.

The judge told Howard he had "terrorised" his victim into giving up the Pin code to her card and then strangled her in a "calculated and callous course of action, a killing motivated by your greed".

With the victim's body stashed under a duvet in her living room, the couple stole her bank card and went on a £13,000 luxury spending spree which included 146 fraudulent payments, the trial heard.

Purchases including a TV, telephones, clothes, sunglasses and handbags which depleted her bank balance from more than £16,000 to £3,434.

Judge Khan said CCTV had shown the couple "laden" with shopping.

Neither had shown any concern about the circumstances in which they came to obtain the card not any reluctance to continue to use it, said the judge.

Howard had searched the internet for the card's transaction limit, while Grant looked up on the internet whether it was possible to smell a dead body from the outside.

Judge Khan KC said that she had read a letter sent to her by Grant, but could not believe that her remorse was genuine.

"Your only regret is that you were caught," the Judge said.

A statement read out in court by Ms Hawkey's family member described her as a "generous, intelligent and hardworking person"

However, she had become reclusive after losing both her parents and her job at a bank and refused contact or help from family and friends, the court heard.

The family had been left with "never-ending and disturbing questions" about the last moments of Ms Hawkey's life, the statement said.

"It will forever be a shadow over our lives," they said.

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