A man was killed by his wife and daughter after announcing he was leaving them to start a new life, a court heard yesterday.
Donald Banfield mysteriously disappeared 11 years ago after he signed the contract on the sale of the family home.
The move would have effectively left his wife Shirley, 54, and daughter Lynette, 29, homeless and scraping by, prosecutors said. And in selling the house, he had ‘signed his own death warrant’, it was alleged.
Shirley (right) and Lynette Banfield, on trial in London accused of killing Shirley's husband, 63-year-old retired bookmaker Don Banfield
His body has never been found, but yesterday his wife, now 64, and his 40-year-old daughter went on trial accused of murdering him.
The Old Bailey heard how Mr Banfield had warned police and friends the pair were trying to kill him.
A day before his disappearance, he told his doctor he had woken in the middle of the night to find himself handcuffed to the bed, while his wife – a retired tax inspector – attempted to suffocate him with a plastic bag, the jury was told. He also allegedly complained he had been hit over the head in his sleep.
But his doctor merely referred him to a psychologist.
Suspected murder victim Don Banfield, who disappeared without trace more than a decade ago
Mr Banfield also reported the attacks to police on May 8, the court heard. He told how he feared his wife would poison him. But he told officers not to do anything, prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC said.
He told jurors: ‘He was biding his time. Once the house was sold he was planning on making a new life for himself on his own and with the £60,000 he was expecting from the sale of the house.
‘Shirley, on the other hand, was facing a rather bleaker future. She was then aged 54 and on the verge of being abandoned without enough money to rehouse both herself and Lynette.
‘Further, without Don’s pension, or only a share of it, they would have less money to live on than before.
‘This, the prosecution suggest, must have caused tension in the household, such as to make Don Banfield fear for his own safety.
‘Sadly, his fears were well-founded and on May 11, when he signed the contract for the sale [of the house] he was unwittingly signing his own death warrant.’
Accused: Daughter Lynette Banfield (left), outside the Old Bailey in London, and Mr Banfield's wife Shirley, of Canterbury, Kent (right)
Neither woman reported him missing and it was not until May 19 that his friend Rod McIntosh went to the police.
During the initial hunt for Mr Banfield in 2001, his wife allegedly lied to officers compiling a photofit saying her husband had shaved off his moustache and that his hair had greyed.
Meanwhile, using forged documents, the pair were able to get their hands on pension payments of £29,000 from William Hill and a state pension totalling £34,000. After he vanished, the pair moved house a number of times before eventually settling in Canterbury in 2005.
The alleged plot began to unravel in 2008 when William Hill stopped paying the pension after becoming suspicious.
Detectives later dug up the garden and garage of Mr Banfield’s former home but they have never found his body. Mrs Banfield also allegedly told police her husband had turned up at their home in Kent in Christmas 2008 looking unwell and coughing up blood.
The two women have already pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to defraud. They deny murder. The trial continues.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2112080/Retired-bookie-went-missing-ELEVEN-years-ago-killed-wife-daughter-claim-pension-pot.html#ixzz1obWs5HRW
