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.