A WOMAN was jailed for life yesterday at Kilmarnock High Court after a
jury unanimously found her guilty, while acting with former boyfriend
Thomas Moore, of the murder of Prestwick widow Jean Keay.
Mrs Keay, 69, of Links Road, Prestwick, was staying overnight with her
sister Mrs Hazel Smith in Ardayre Road, Prestwick. She was struck on the
head by a baseball bat, or similar object, in the early hours of August
13 last year.
Brenda Horsburgh, 25, and Moore, 32 -- who is already serving life for
the murder -- broke into Mrs Smith's home with the intention of stealing
the keys to a bookmaker's shop run by family friend George Scott, who
lodged with Mrs Smith.
The jury at Kilmarnock took just an hour and 50 minutes to return
unanimous verdicts of guilty on the murder charge and further charges of
assault on Mrs Smith and Mr Scott -- both of whom were 74 at the time.
Trial Judge Lord Cowie jailed Horsburgh for five years on each of the
assault charges, and for two years on each of a series of housebreaking
charges and one of conspiring with Moore to rob the bookmaker's
premises. All the prison sentences will run concurrently.
Advocate-depute Iain Bonomy had told the Judge that the value of goods
stolen in four housebreakings totalled nearly #11,500, of which only
#250 had been recovered.
Her counsel, Mr Graham Bell, QC, told Lord Cowie that Horsburgh, a
former Save the Children fund worker, had been a useful member of
society. However, it seemed that her lifestyle changed drastically when
she began associating with Moore.
As she went down the stairs behind the dock at the end of the four-day
hearing, Horsburgh, who had been described by her former lover as ''a
cold-hearted bitch'', glanced across to her mother and two of her
sisters in the public seats without any show of emotion.
The couple, who met in Glasgow, moved to Ayr three years ago and set
up house in Greenan Grove, in the prosperous Doonfoot area on the south
side of the town.
Neighbours quickly became aware that the pair -- with whom Brenda
Horsburgh's younger sister, Sylvia, moved in -- were perhaps not just
the usual run of Doonfoot residents. Thomas Eveson was a neighbour at
that time and lived across the road from the couple.
In evidence at Horsburgh's trial, he said he was disturbed on numerous
occasions by early morning vehicle movements.
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