Yahoo News Bullying woman sent to prison for 20 years after 'battering' her girlfriend to death
A bullying woman who murdered her girlfriend by giving her a ‘massive battering’ has been sent to jail for at least 20 years.
Becky Reid, 32, was sentenced after being convicted on Thursday by a jury of the murder of mother-of-one Lyndsey Vaux, 30, following a six-week trial at Manchester Crown Court.
Reid refused to leave her cell at HMP Styal on Friday to face sentencing.
Miss Vaux’s daughter, aged 12, was sitting in the public gallery when the sentence was announced.
Miss Vaux died in Wigan on May 22 last year, half-starved and severely injured following years of beatings by Reid, after falling under her control and losing contact with her daughter five years ago.
Judge Richard Mansell QC told the murder victim’s daughter: ‘I’m sure that deep down she still loved you.
You must remember your mother did not abandon you, she was taken away by the actions of another person. Everything I have heard is, she was a really decent, kind, loving human being.’
The court heard that Miss Vaux was a happy and healthy woman before meeting Reid, described as a controlling bully, in 2011.
Reid regularly kicked, punched and stamped on her victim, leaving her ‘looking like the elephant man’, the jury was told.
Neighbours, shopkeepers and other witnesses told how Miss Vaux was often seen being dragged by her hair and assaulted as Reid screamed abuse at her in the streets around their home in Platt Bridge.
Miss Vaux was often sent by Reid limping into the streets in the rain to go begging and scrounging to get money for scratchcards, ‘smoke and cans’ to feed her alcohol and cannabis habits. If she did not bring back enough money she would be beaten.
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In the final months before her death Miss Vaux appeared downtrodden, malnourished, constantly bruised and going downhill rapidly.
One neighbour told jurors she ‘looked like she was dead already’.
Jurors heard that on one occasion Reid kicked Miss Vaux hard in the face at their home for putting salad on her burger.
On May 22 last year she suffered a final, “massive battering” which proved fatal.
A post-mortem revealed she had suffered 90 separate injuries following years of abuse by Reid.
Experts concluded she died from the combined effects of multiple injuries over several months.
Reid denied using any violence against Miss Vaux.
As police investigated the death they became aware of the earlier partner of Becky Reid, who had also been beaten up by both mother and daughter.
Miss Newns said she was assaulted around 50 times by Reid before leaving. Reid was also convicted of grievous bodily harm to another previous partner, Samantha Newns
Prosecutor Paul Reid QC told the court: ‘Lyndsey Vaux was not so lucky.’
Senior Investigating Officer Bob Tonge of Greater Manchester Police’s (GMP) Major Incident Support Unit said: ‘Lyndsey Vaux was subjected to years of horrific domestic abuse at the hands of her girlfriend, and no decision made here today can bring her back.
‘Some neighbours knew about this abuse and did nothing.’
Reid was also convicted of grievous bodily harm to another previous partner, Samantha Newns.
Her mother, Gillian Reid, 57, was cleared of murder, but was found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm to Ms Newns. She was given a 12-month jail sentence suspended for 12 months.
