The ‘body in the freezer’ murderer, Sharon Swinhoe, has died in prison after testing positive for Covid-19.
The Newcastle killer was serving 25 years for murdering her retired civil servant boyfriend Peter McMahon before plundering his bank account for thousands of pounds.
Alongside accomplice Joseph Collins, 54, Swinhoe was found guilty in 2013 of murdering the grandfather-of-one at her home by gouging his eyes out, Chronicle Live reports.
Newcastle Crown Court heard the pair first threw his body into a dog kennel and then moved him in a suitcase to a specially-bought chest freezer kept in the bedroom of Collins’ flat in Elswick.
Swinhoe, 52, formerly of Walker, died in hospital on February 23.
ExaminerLive reports she is one of two women prisoners to have died after being struck down with Covid-19 at New Hall prison at Flockton, near Huddersfield.
An investigation has been launched following the women’s deaths which are said to have followed a serious outbreak of coronavirus at the prison.
A spokesperson for the Prison Service said it could not confirm the cause of death of the women’s deaths as it was a matter for the coroner.
The deaths of both women are being investigated by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.
Swinhoe’s victim’s corpse was discovered in a chest freezer by police at accomplice Collins’ eighth floor flat at the Sycamores, Elswick, in December 2012.
He had died from heart failure triggered by the injuries to his eyes between late October and early November 2012 – however an exact date of his death was never divulged by either defendants.
The court heard how Swinhoe had been in a relationship with the former local government worker, described by the prosecution as her “sugar daddy”, and between the time he went missing and was discovered by officers, she had plundered £2,660 from his bank accounts.
Jailing Swinhoe in 2013, Mr Justice Globe branded her a “sinister” liar who had shown no remorse for her crime.