A woman who slit her sister’s throat before making off with her diamond-encrusted gold Rolex watch has been jailed for life.
Nancy Pexton slashed and stabbed her sibling Jennifer Abbott 10 times and then left her body for three days in her flat in Camden, north London.
She taped up her mouth with gaffer tape in an “intentional act of degradation” before leaving her to die.
On Friday Pexton, 70, was sentenced to life imprisonment to serve a minimum of 22 years for the murder of her sister on June 10 last year.
Sentencing her, Judge Anuja Dhir KC told Pexton she was sure she intended to kill her sister, given the “ferocity” of the attack.
She said: “Your actions and conduct after the killing demonstrates not only your absence of remorse but also a deliberate and callous attitude towards what you had done.”
The judge said taping up her sister’s mouth was a “deliberate act of degradation” which was “callous, demeaning and cruel”.
She added: “This act demonstrates the depth of your animosity and hostility towards your sister.
“You took the watch because it was valuable and because you were jealous of your sister’s greater financial security.”
Pexton had tried to claim to police following her arrest that she got her sister’s blood all over her clothes when she hugged Ms Abbott while she was having a nosebleed.
When police recovered the Rolex from Pexton’s bag, she claimed her sister had given it to her to “look after”.
But messages from months before exposed the depths of Pexton’s jealousy and animosity towards her more successful sibling.
She wrote in notes on her phone: “I’m planning to kill my sister whom I love but she destroyed my life.
“Loose lips, loose lips can sink ships – and she sank my ship.”
Months before her death, Ms Abbott had confided to her nephew that she was scared for her safety as Pexton was “capable of anything”.
In notes on her phone, Pexton, who was suffering from depression, wrote that she was thinking about killing her “evil” sister.
Following her arrest, Pexton told police she had just being “venting” her feelings and had no memory of the 90 minutes covering the time spent in her flat.
However, an examination of her black cowboy hat and blue dungarees revealed they were covered in her sister’s blood.
Ms Abbott’s flat also showed evidence that someone had tried to “clean up”.
US citizen Ms Abbott, 69, was last seen alive on a doorbell camera as she returned from walking her corgi Prince at 7.36am on the day of her murder.
Pexton spoke to her by phone at 11.36am and travelled by bus to her Mornington Place flat at 12.45pm, leaving an hour later.
She then called her GP, reported taking an overdose and was taken to hospital where she stayed before her arrest on June 18.
Video footage released by the Metropolitan Police showed her arrest in hospital.
On June 13, a neighbour used a scaffolding pole to break down Ms Abbott’s door after becoming concerned he could not hear her dog barking.
Ms Abbott’s partially naked and decomposing body was found on the living room floor.
She had a large, gaping “slash-type” wound across her neck and gaffer tape across her mouth, jurors heard.
Ms Abbott’s corgi had been trapped in the kitchen and was freed by firefighters.
Ms Abbott’s only son Brad Carlson described the killing as a “monstrous” and “heinous” act by a person he had tried to help in the past.
Mr Carlson said the loss of his mother, who devoted herself to supporting him, was an “unbelievable nightmare”.
Paying tribute, he described Ms Abbott as his “hero” and “role model”, who had climbed out of her early difficulties in life, bought property, wrote books and made movies.
He said: “She was a single mother raising her only child, committed to providing me with the life she was not lucky enough to have – boarding school, quality education.
“Most importantly she gave me love and a feeling of belonging and pride. She was my whole world, she was everything to me.”
