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Prayer confession killer convicted
06.11.09
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A man whose prayers for forgiveness were overheard by police who bugged his car has been convicted of murder.
George Maben's "confession" was played to an Old Bailey jury, which found him guilty of killing his girlfriend's wealthy mother.
It was after detectives heard his emotional, whispered words "God, forgive me for what I have done" that they arrested Maben for strangling 65-year-old Maureen Cosgrove at her Surrey home.
Unemployed Maben, 45, of Rosehill, Surrey, faces a life sentence for murdering Mrs Cosgrove at her home in Carshalton Beeches on March 24. Mrs Cosgrove was asphyxiated with a ligature in the kitchen of her five-bedroom home after a visit to the dentist.
Maben was going out with her daughter Lucy Rees, 34, who was expecting his baby. But their efforts to live together in Mrs Cosgrove's £1 million home - part of the time in the summerhouse at the bottom of her garden - had not worked out, said Anthony Glass QC, prosecuting.
He said Maben was seen on CCTV taking a bus from his mother's home to South Way, putting on gloves during the journey. He then met Mrs Rees and they returned to the house to find the body. Fibres from the dead woman's clothing were found on clothes Maben had been wearing. But police needed more evidence to build a case, so officers placed a secret listening device in a Ford Focus used by Maben and on April 9 he was recorded begging for help from above.
Mr Glass played the recording to the jury and read from a transcript. It said: "Please God, help me ... for me and Lucy eliminated from all police inquiries and everything's all right, please God help me. God forgive me for what I have done. I just could not take it any more. Every single day, she was breaking me down. Please God will you forgive me? Please God, sorry."
Mr Glass told the jury: "These words could and should be interpreted as a confession to murder - 'God forgive me for what I have done'. He provides in these words a motive for the killing - I just could not take it any more. Clearly, the relationship between the defendant and his girlfriend's mother had seriously deteriorated. With her out of the way, the defendant could see a future for himself, Lucy, her children and the unborn baby, without the constraints imposed by Maureen Cosgrove. That is why he killed her and he said so in these few words. It is compelling evidence as to why he did that."
Outside court, Detective Chief Inspector John McFarlane said of Mrs Rees: "It is terrible. She has a child by the killer of her own mother. Maben is a cool, manipulative individual who sought to control her."
Judge Jeremy Roberts extended the court's sympathy to Mrs Cosgrove's family, especially Mrs Rees who had lost both her parents in tragic circumstances. Her father Terence hanged himself on a footpath in Arundel, West Sussex, two years ago. Maben was remanded in custody for sentencing on Friday.
