An inquest has heard how a mother told police, ‘I knew I was going to kill someone today’, after beating a pensioner to death in a Co-op supermarket, an inquest heard.
HOW IT STARTED
Eunice Rees, 87, waited in the car as her childhood lover John, 87, went into the Penygraig Co-operative supermarket at Rhondda, South Wales, to shop.
The retired engineer never returned after Zara Radcliffe, 34, battered him with wine bottles and a fire extinguisher as he tried to stop her from attacking a nurse with a knife.
COURT HEARD
Radcliffe, who has paranoid schizophrenia, beat John, a churchwarden so hard with a wine bottle it broke, before picking up another bottle and hitting him in the face and head a further 21 times as he lay on the aisle floor, an inquest into his death heard.
John Rees, described by the coroner as ‘a private, quiet, and humble man’, died from severe blunt force facial injuries, a post-mortem examination found.
WHAT RADCLIFFE SAID
When Radcliffe was arrested inside the shop, ‘she was calm’, Sergeant James Pearce said.
She spoke softly and had a manner of indifference about her which resonates to this day.
She said words to the effect of, ‘I knew I was going to kill someone today’.
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The 34-year-old mum-of-two later admitted manslaughter by way of diminished responsibility and was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order.
SHE PLEADS GUILTY
She also pleaded guilty to three charges of attempted murder of Lisa Way, 53, Mr Price, 58, and Gaynor Saurin.
Meanwhile, Radcliffe had been released from a mental hospital with ‘no negotiated crisis plan’ a few months before the May 2020 attack.
