LIVERPOOL – A television actor who left her mother’s rotting corpse “wedged” behind a bedroom door so she could claim her pension money was jailed for 11 months yesterday.
The body of Olive Maddock (95) was left to decompose in the bedroom of her Merseyside home by daughter Olive Hazel Maddock, known as Hazel, and granddaughter Jasmine Maddock (35).
The pair were sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court after Hazel Maddock (61) pleaded guilty to unlawful prevention of burial at an earlier hearing.
Maddock, a TV extra who has worked on Channel 4 dramas Brooksideand Hollyoaks, admitted fraudulently obtaining a payment of her dead mother's state pension of £176.92 and a single payment of pension credit of £34.44.
Jasmine Maddock, an artist, pleaded guilty to leaving her grandmother’s corpse unburied. She was given a 26-week prison sentence, suspended for two years with supervision, and was ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid community service.
Judge Gerald Clifton said the pair had entered into a “conspiracy of silence”.
“What you did was a gross effrontery to the natural decent behaviour of most good people in similar positions throughout the land,” he said.
Anya Horwood, prosecuting, told the court that police found Mrs Maddock’s body “wedged” behind a bedroom door in the house the three women shared in Saltburn Road, Wallasey, last August after a neighbour raised concerns about her welfare.
Forensic examination did not give an exact cause or date of death but it is thought she died of natural causes any time between two and six months earlier.
On August 1st, neighbour Pauline King reported her concerns about the welfare of Mrs Maddock to police, and a constable visited the house.
Ms Horwood said: “The officer explained the reason for the visit and she replied ‘she is fine, she is in the front room and we have been giving her food through the door’.” When the officer said he wanted to check on her, Maddock replied: “I haven’t seen her for a week, to be honest. I don’t know if she is dead or alive.”
The policeman was struck by an “appalling smell” on stepping into the house, which was infested with mice and swarms of flies, the court heard. More officers were called and when they could not open the bedroom door, one peered around it and saw a “decomposing body lying amongst rubbish and clutter”. When arrested, Maddock told police: “I’m no expert. I didn’t know if she was dead . . . I went in the room and she grabbed my leg and that really freaked me out so I didn’t go back in.”
When Jasmine Maddock was examined by a doctor following her arrest, she said her grandmother had fallen out of bed about three weeks earlier and that her mother said they should not report the death until the pension had been secured.
Sarah Phelan, mitigating for Hazel Maddock, said the defendants lived in a family home “unimaginable to the normal citizen”.
“The day-to-day life can only be viewed with horror,” she said.
Hannah Wood, mitigating for Jasmine Maddock, said she suffered from dependant personality disorder and a panic disorder.
When Judge Clifton delivered his verdicts, Jasmine Maddock, who was shaking and rocking forwards and backwards throughout the hearing, collapsed in tears.
Maddock looked at her daughter and shook her head before she was led to the cells.