Woman cut dad's throat with shovel after finding child abuse images at his home then covered up killing for 12 years

Barbara Coombes, 63, from Stockport, has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of her dad Kenneth Coombes in January 2006

Barbara Coombes was horrified to discover her father owned images of child sexual abuse

A woman who admitted killing her father with a shovel and burying his body, wrapped in a carpet, in her back garden has been jailed for nine years.

Barbara Coombes brutally killed her dad Kenneth Coombes in January 2006 while consumed by a 'haze of disgust' after discovering he owned sexually explicit images of children.

This morning at Manchester Crown Court Coombes pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.

The 63-year-old had been gardening at the Stockport home where she lived with her father when she came inside and found images of child porn in a box on the dining room table.

Kenneth Coombes, pictured, served in the RAF during the World War Two (Image: Andy Kelvin for MailOnline)

Coombes went to confront her 87-year-old father and struck him in the back of the head, then when he turned to face her, she struck him a second time with the spade. 　

The court heard how the mum-of-one watched her father, who had served in the RAF during World War 2, bleed to death.

The garden where the body of Kenneth Coombes was buried

Police found the body of Kenneth Coombes buried in the back garden of his daughter's house in Stockport (Image: SWNS)

It is alleged Coombes walked into a police station and admitted to killing a man 'a number of years ago' (Image: SWNS)

His body was left unburied in the garden until the next day after she ordered a tonne of soil, reports the Manchester Evening News.

In a confession handed to officers in January of this year, Coombes said she had been mentally and physically abused by her father from a young age.

However Coombes did not tell anyone at the time of the killing and instead told a "series of elaborate lies to cover her tracks".

She continued to respond to letters and other correspondence in his name, the court heard, fraudulently claiming £189,000 in his pension and her carer's allowance.

She lied to her brother and her daughter, saying Kenneth had died suddenly from a heart condition and had been taken to hospital and cremated.

After the makeshift burial in the garden, Coombes cleared out Kenneth’s belongings from the house and continued living there. 

The net began to close on killer Coombes in the autumn of 2017 when a local housing association officer visited the property to arrange a 'winter welfare' visit for Mr Coombes, who would have been 99 at the time.

The 63-year-old tried to rebuff the visits but suspicions were raised.

A visit was arranged and the day before that Coombes walked into a police station and confessed.

The mum-of-one had known his death would soon be discovered.

Mr Justice King told Coombes she only told the authorities when the ‘net around you became tighter and tighter up to January 18, in the sense that the authorities were seeking to see your father face to face’.

She had moved back in with her 'strict' father after splitting with her husband.

Coombes rolled his body into some carpet and buried him in the garden, having to order some more soil as it did not cover his body.

The court was told Coombes killed her father in a 'haze of disgust', and that she ‘panicked’ in deciding to bury the body.

Kenneth Coombes is thought to have been killed in January 2006

Wearing a grey jumper with black glasses and white hair, Coombes was asked how she pleaded and replied "not guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter".

Prosecuting, Michelle Colborne QC said the defendant suffered from a "lifetime of abuse, verbal and physical".

Kenneth would have been in his late eighties at the time of his death, 12 years ago.

Coombes had previously denied murdering her father between January 1 2006 and January 31 2006.

Kenneth Coombes' body was found wrapped in a carpet buried in the garden (Image: SWNS)

At the time of the police search, former neighbour Terry Sever said: “To my knowledge this man Kenneth just disappeared. I was not that friendly to ask where he went. I just did not see him anymore.”

Mr Sever recalled how Barbara Coombes said her father was ‘strict’.

He said: “She used to say how strict her father was. If he wanted to watch something on television, her and her daughter used to have to go out of the room. He was very strict.”

Senior Investigating Officer Duncan Thorpe of GMP’s Major Incident Support Unit, said: “This is a tragic case in which an elderly man has been killed by his own daughter, who then went on to fraudulently claim benefits of over £180,000.

“She showed absolutely no concern for what she had done and denied everyone the chance to say goodbye, as Kenneth lay buried at the bottom of his own garden, just metres from her own bedroom window.

“Despite having years to tell someone what really happened, she only came forward when she had no other choice.

“The impact on the family and friends of all concerned cannot be underestimated. As these tragic events have come to an end I hope that the family can now move forward with their lives.”