Lillie's Killer Jailed

Newcastle Herald

Saturday July 12, 2008

By JULIEANNE STRACHAN

A DRUG addict who killed Cooks Hill identity Lillie Wood to get money to feed her habit could be released from prison in as little as four years.

The 88-year-old victim lived on her own and was widely and affectionately known as The Cat Lady.

Friends and family have condemned the sentence, one describing it as "not enough by half"'.

Miss Wood was well known in the community for spending time on her front veranda, talking to passers-by and tending her pet cats and strays.

Her attacker, former prostitute Evelyn Gaye Lambkin, 34, attended Sydney District Court for sentencing yesterday.

Lambkin sniffled and continually wiped her face with a tissue throughout proceedings.

A family member, who did not want to be identified, said the jail term was a letdown.

"I don't think it's very fair," she said.

Cooks Hill resident Bill Squair

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Jail term for Lillie's killer

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was also disappointed with the sentence.

"The sentence does not reflect the crime," he said.

Judge Robert Hulme read the facts of the case, describing to the court how the elderly woman had been preyed on in the days before her death and was ultimately killed during a robbery.

Judge Hulme said Lambkin had previously hounded Miss Wood for money and knew her victim was aged and frail.

He said Lambkin had claimed she had been "off her face" and wanted money for drugs when she robbed and accidentally killed Miss Wood.

During the attack, she had threatened to kill the elderly woman, grabbed her arms and put her hand over her mouth.

Miss Wood died from the combined effects of blunt-force trauma and heart disease.

Judge Hulme summarised psychiatric reports that stated Lambkin had been the victim of sexual abuse and violence, was drug dependent and of low intellect.

He said Lambkin had been held in a protective area in jail and had been threatened by other prisoners, some of whom called her a "granny killer".

Judge Hulme sentenced Lambkin, of Greenslopes Street, Bar Beach, to jail for a non-parole period of 51/2 years for the aggravated assault and manslaughter of Miss Wood.

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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