MAN JAILED FOR LIFE FOR HAMMER MURDER OF BED-BOUND MOTHER

Michael Bowen has been handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 16 years after being convicted at Winchester Crown Court of murdering his mother, Janet Bowen. The attack took place in the early hours of New Year's Eve at the home they shared in Maple Gardens, Yateley, Hampshire. The court heard that Janet Bowen, who had recently suffered a stroke and was bed-bound, was struck more than ten times to the head and face with a hammer. Sentencing him, Judge Adam Feest KC described the attack as "ferocious and sustained", saying it was impossible to imagine the terror she experienced in her final moments. He said she would have known it was her own son carrying out the violence against her.

Michael Bowen had acted as his mother's carer, and relatives described him as having been a "caring, loving son" before being changed by what they called a "heavy" drug habit. In mitigation, defence barrister Tina Adkin KC told the court he had recently resolved to stop using drugs and alcohol following his grandmother's death, and said he had shown "real remorse" for his actions. Medical assessments presented in court found he suffered from a substance-induced psychotic disorder, worsened by alcohol withdrawal, and that he had heard voices telling him to kill his mother. Jurors rejected a defence of diminished responsibility and convicted him of murder.

A victim impact statement from Samantha Bowen, the victim's daughter and the defendant's sister, was read to the court. She described her mother as "a gentle and kind person" with "a heart of gold", who had sacrificed her own ambitions to raise her children. She said her mother had been "my biggest cheerleader" and that her heart was broken. Ms Bowen said the fact her own brother had taken their mother's life had fractured the family in a way that felt "completely impossible to heal", calling the killing "brutal and senseless". Michael Bowen will serve a minimum of 16 years before he can be considered for parole.