TWO women who carried out a brutal murder - and dumped the body just yards from their flat - have been sentenced to life imprisonment today and both will serve a minimum of 26 years behind bars.
Justine Wainwright, 58, has been appearing at Sheffield Crown Court alongside her girlfriend Penny Brownlie, 45, for the last two weeks.
Both denied the murder of 42-year-old Clare Louise Smith on May 18, although a 12-person jury found them guilty of murder yesterday after a two-hour deliberation.
Miss Smith’s body, which had 74 external injuries, was found just yards away from the couple’s ground floor flat on Britannia Close, Barnsley, at about 6am on May 19.
The Crown Prosecution Service claim a gold chain belonging to Brownlie which was worth several thousand pounds was stolen and the pair believed Miss Smith, a spice user, held information as to who was responsible for its theft.
Neighbours last week told the jury that they heard angry exchanges come from inside the flat, including screaming and ‘pleas to stop’, as well as questions about the chain’s whereabouts.
CCTV fitted to an adjacent property later showed the pair carrying a heavy item, which the CPS say was them carrying Miss Smith’s body to where she was found dead before they went back inside.
A carpet was later put in a bin, as well as a wooden object - a pick axe handle - which was later recovered and found stained with the victim’s blood.
According to the police, a clean-up operation had taken place in the flat using white spirit, although splatters of Miss Smith’s blood was found in the bathroom, hallway and kitchen in which the CPS said was a brutal assault over a sustained period of time.
Judge Jeremy Richardson, who gave life sentences to both, told Wainwright and Brownlie: "You were both convicted of murder yesterday. You are two brutish women who are equally culpable for a relentless and violent attack on a defenceless, vulnerable woman.
"You are very dangerous and would stop at nothing. Your defence was bogus, which the jury saw through, and it bordered on preposterous at times.
"You took Clare Louise Smith back to your property and lured her in. You both participated in an exceptionally brutal beating. This was unrelenting, it was not a quick death, and came from her being overpowered by two large, physical women.
"You have not shown a shred of remorse at any stage."
