A man who beat his own mother to death has been jailed for 27 years. Chillingly Sean Heiss, from Surbiton, South London, reigned blows down upon his mother, Margaret Sheehy, 58, until she died.
Margaret’s body was found the next day by a work colleaugue and a post mortem showed she had died from blunt force trauma to the head. It’s also believed Heiss may have throttled his mother as she lay dying.
After the murder, Heiss fled and used his mother’s bank cards to travel to Spain.
Just three later Heiss, 30, was arrested by Spanish police for the murder of a woman in Spain. He had to be extradited back to the UK for the trial over the death of his mother.
During the trial prosecutor Sarah Plaschkes QC explained that before her death, Margaret had been planning to sell her flat in London and move away.
The jury also heard how she had considered helping her son pay off some of his debts after he got into difficulty. However, just weeks before she was murdered, Margaret changed her mind and decided to continue working and living in the flat.
Heiss suffers from Schizophernia but, at the Old Bailey, although the Judge said he had taken his mental state into account he rejected Heiss’ argument of diminished responsibility.
At the Old Bailey is was confirmed Heiss will serve his sentence in the UK alongside the outstanding sentence for the Spanish murder.