Greedy niece traffic warden jailed for murder of the Queen's former dressmaker

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Susan Turner, 47, set the home of her wealthy maiden aunt Violet Durling ablaze when she could not make herself the sole beneficiary of her will.

Miss Durling, who was senile and walked with a zimmer frame, choked to death when she was trapped in her flat above the family engineering business in Plaistow, East London, in February 2006.

She had worked for the Queen's dressmaker Norman Hartnell and fitted the late Queen Mother's wedding dress.

Turner, a former traffic warden of Barkingside, East London, denied murder but was convicted by an Old Bailey jury in December.

Sentencing her to life imprisonment and ordering her to serve a minimum of 20 years, Judge John Milford QC said: "There can be no doubt that you intended to kill her.

'Resentment': Susan Turner was bitterly jealous of her siblings, the court heard

"You set the fire on the stairs, her only means of escape."

"She loved you, indeed you were her favourite amongst her younger relatives. There can be no doubt that you intended to kill her.

"You bitterly resented your two siblings, both thoroughly decent people.

"By destroying the premises by fire, as well as killing their revered aunt, you would also have destroyed (brother) Siddie Durling's business, which he had inherited from your father."

He added that while the murder was premeditated it was "not exacted with any great sophistication", while Miss Turner's behaviour in the days leading up to it was "confused" and "aberrant".