Yahoo News Former lover of Michael Winner jailed for 'brutal attack' on film director's wife
Michael Winner’s ex-partner, has been jailed after robbing his widow to “teach her a lesson” over a change to his will.
Gurgana Gueorguieva was sentenced to nine-and-a-half years after admitting robbing Geraldine Winner, 81, in her Knightsbridge flat in October 2015.
The 48-year-old had denied attacking the OAP but had admitted one charge of robbery.
She confessed to taking goods with a total value of up to £300,000, as well as taking framed photographs of Michael Winner.
However, Gueorguieva, a former long-term girlfriend of the film director’s, subjected Mrs Winner to a violent robbery.
Mrs Winner suffered head injuries and a broken finger during the three-hour ordeal.
A woman has been jailed for 9.5 years after pleading guilty to an aggravated burglary in #Kensington https://t.co/2QHiDoZTWh
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) September 27, 2019
She was attacked as she opened the door to her flat to put out some rubbish.
As she did so, say police, Gueorguieva attacked her and forced Mrs Winner back into her home, blindfolded her and bound her hands and feet.
“This was a brutal attack on an elderly woman in her own home, the place where she should have been safest,” said the Met Police’s Detective Constable Peta Lundgren.
“Gueorguieva appears to have carefully planned this burglary and we are pleased she is now behind bars and unable to subject anyone else to this kind of horrific assault.
Gueorguieva had denied causing any intentional injuries and said that the wounds Mrs Winner received were as a result of self-defence in an initial struggle.
She told the court: “It was never my intention to cause any physical harm to her and in fact I was very careful not to do so but it ended up that way because she was fighting back quite hard.
“Obviously she was scared and I am not blaming her.”
The court heard Mrs Winner was restrained with cable-ties and repeatedly hit after she was attacked while taking the rubbish out in the attack.
She also said she was hit with a kettle.
Prosecutor Mark Gadsden said: “You did not feel remotely bad about what you did to that woman because you regarded her as evil.”
She replied: “Yes, at the time of the robbery. I did not want to harm her, just to rob her.”
Mr Gadsden said Gueorguieva carried out the robbery as “revenge in the biblical sense”.
Gueorguieva said that Mrs Winner had removed a number of people from Michael Winner’s will, removing her and a potential inheritance of £100,000.
Mr Winner died in 2013.
When asked about the alleged will change, Gueorguieva said: “She was doing it to deprive people because she was upset, because she was greedy.”
Gueorguieva was in a relationship with Michael Winner between 1999 and 2002.
