A 70-year-old woman has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 22 years for murdering her sister and stealing her gold Rolex watch. Nancy Pexton was convicted at the Old Bailey on Wednesday of killing Jennifer Abbott, a 69-year-old film director, at her flat in Camden, London, on 10 June last year.
Sentencing Pexton on Friday, Judge Dhir stated that she was sure Pexton had intended to kill her sister, given the “ferocity” of the attack. The judge noted that Pexton showed no remorse and displayed a “deliberate and callous attitude” after the killing. She described taping up Abbott’s mouth as a “deliberate act of degradation” that was “callous, demeaning and cruel”.
The court heard that Abbott was captured on a doorbell camera returning from walking her corgi, Prince, at 7.36am on the day of the murder. Pexton spoke to her by phone at 11.36am and travelled by bus to Abbott’s flat in Mornington Place at 12.45pm, leaving an hour later. She then called her GP, reported taking an overdose, and was taken to hospital, where she was arrested on 18 June.
Abbott’s partially naked body was discovered on the living room floor three days later, after a neighbour used a scaffolding pole to break down the door. She had been stabbed 10 times, with a large “slash-type” wound across her neck and gaffer tape over her mouth. Her Rolex watch, a gift from her son Brad Carlson which she never removed, was missing. Police recovered the watch from Pexton’s bag in hospital; Pexton claimed she had been given it to “look after”.
Carlson told the court of a “bubbling” resentment between his mother and aunt, describing “anger and hostility” in their interactions. Judge Dhir said Pexton took the watch because it was valuable and because she was jealous of her sister’s greater financial security.
