Karen Vamplew sentenced at Leicester Crown Court for murder of mother-in-law in Newark
A woman has been jailed for murdering her vulnerable mother-in-law to pay off her debts, in a “killing for gain”.
Karen Vamplew, 44, formerly of King Street, Newark, will serve a minimum of 32 years before being eligible for parole, Judge Timothy Spencer ordered today (May 20).
It follows a four-week trial at Leicester Crown Court.
Speaking in court, Judge Spencer said: “On December 15, 2021, you set a fire which burnt to death your mother in law Elizabeth Anne Vamplew. You murdered her.
“She was a sister, a mother, and aunt, a neighbour and a friend to many. Until her mobility decreased she was well known in Newark as a cheery, bright presence.”
Elizabeth, 77, known to her friends and family as Anne, died from her severe burns and smoke inhalation injuries in hospital on December 15, following her rescue from her burning home at 2 Eton Court, Newark, in the early hours.
The Judge acknowledged her death had been devastating, particularly for her family who “loved her dearly”.
Vamplew, Judge Spencer asserted, set fire to the corner of Anne’s bed while she slept — most likely with a cigarette lighter — leaving her mother-in-law to wake up to find her bed on fire.
He said: “Flames, smoke, an inferno, she unable to hear, confused, terrified — this was hell.”
He asserted that Anne, who was deaf and had limited mobility, was “particularly vulnerable”.
It was also determined that Vamplew had done a “significant degree of planning” but that it was far from sophisticated.
Addressing Vamplew, he stated: “Your plan was half baked and was doomed to end in disaster for everyone, yourself included.”
He suggested it had begun at 4pm on December 14, when Vamplew made a Google search relating to smoke alarms, may have been triggered by her visit to the bank with Anne earlier that day, and was implemented at 10.25pm when she actively disabled the location function on her phone.
Outlining her movements, Judge Spencer explained Vamplew visited Anne’s house twice during the night.
During the first visit just before 1am, which lasted 30 minutes, she did “a wicked and terrible thing”, before returning home and removing the hoodie and jeans she had worn he suggested was because she feared “evidential connection with the fire-setting”.
He also believed she had expected to go unnoticed, and had “wholly underestimated the extent of private security cameras and wholly underestimated the efficacy of the police’s number plate recognition system”.
He added: “That you visited twice was in your plan never supposed to come to light.
“In both of your early accounts to police you presented your self as going there only once. The fact of two visits was one of the aspects of the case you were never able to explain.”
On her second visit, Vamplew returned to Eton Court in pyjamas. Judge Spencer described this visit as her attempt to show herself as the “heroine” who had rushed from her bed to help her mother-in-law but was “thwarted by the intensity of the fire”.
He added: “If your only reason for return was to get help you would have rung 999 straight away but you went into the house again — this time you activated the lifeline system.
“You were trying to make it look as if Anne had attempted to summon help through the lifeline system — one of the explanations you gave was you had left your bed and your house because of an alert from that system.
“In the days that followed you gave a series of inconsistent, lying accounts… ultimately you trapped yourself in a tangled web of lies.”
While Judge Spencer accepted the defence that there was no “high living” or extravagance — he asserted it was a “killing for gain”.
Anne’s bank account — which Vamplew had access to — was in eight months drained from £27,000 to £105, despite Anne’s “healthy” income from her pension which should have covered her outgoings.
Addressing Vamplew he added: “You received a carer’s allowance — but that was not enough for you. You milked that account.
“This represents a gross breach of her trust.”
He noted Vamplew had significant debts — an unpaid electricity bill of over £10,000, council tax, gas, mobile phone, and Sky TV bills all unpaid and accompanied by multiple final demands.
Judge Spencer said he was satisfied by the time of the fire that Vamplew viewed Anne as a burden. A stop had been put on her account days prior, meaning she could no longer access the money.
He added: “Your husband in the dark as to the financial mess and you knew he would inherit half the estate.
“In your muddled thinking you somehow thought that this fire would somehow mean your financial exploitation would not come to light and that Mark’s inheriting half the estate would smooth over all the financial troubles.”
Deciding on the minimum term of Vamplew’s life sentence, Judge Spencer considered the mitigation of Vamplew’s lack of previous convictions, and her four children.
However, the aggravating factors of Anne’s vulnerability, the significant degree of planning, abuse of position of trust, and the fact Anne would have suffered physically prior to her death outweighed the mitigating factors.
A total of 234 days were taken off the sentence to account for the time Vamplew has spent in custody.
Judge Spencer also made a formal judicial commendation to the fire officers Cooper and Barber — who “exhibited bravery of the highest order” — and Detective Sergeant Pollard — who “conducted herself commendably” — and her team in the case.
Following the sentencing, Detective Chief Inspector Clare Dean, who oversaw the investigation, said: “This is a very sad and tragic case and I am pleased the jury saw through Karen Vamplew’s lies and found her guilty of murder after careful deliberation.
“This has been a lengthy and complex investigation and I would like to praise the dedicated work carried out by the investigation team and external specialists to bring Vamplew to justice.
“Throughout this investigation Vamplew maintained that she was not responsible for the death of her own mother-in-law.
"The simple fact is that she deliberately set a catastrophic and fatal fire knowing full well that Elizabeth was asleep inside the property. It was a brutal and premeditated act borne out of wickedness and greed.
“Today’s sentence brings to an end a long legal ordeal for Elizabeth’s family, but I am acutely aware that it will never ease the pain they feel every day at this terrible loss. I would like to thank each of them for the enormous courage and dignity they have shown in unimaginably difficult circumstances.”
