Robert & Jonathan Maskell

Timeline

• January 2004 — Robert and Jonathan Maskell and Dwane Johnston left their birthday party to meet Johnston and then returned without them; the party continued in their absence.
• January 2005 — Robert and Jonathan Maskell suspected that Anjelica Hallwood had up to £3,000 hidden in her house and they broke into her home; the Old Bailey was told they ransacked the house searching for money, and Johnston hit Mrs Hallwood in the face and put pressure on her throat as he pinned her to the ground; Mrs Hallwood’s body was found the following day.
• Previous day (before sentencing date) — Dwane Johnston left prison after serving a sentence for driving offences and went to stay at Mrs Hallwood’s home.
• January 9, 2006 — Robert and Jonathan Maskell were convicted of manslaughter of 74-year-old Anjelica Hallwood; they and Johnston were cleared of murder; the court heard the brothers and Johnston were convicted of robbery.
• January 31, 2006 — Judge Gerald Gordon remanded the three in custody for sentencing.
• February 2, 2006 — Robert and Jonathan Maskell were sentenced to nine years in prison.
• February 3, 2006 — The sentences were reported as being imposed at the Old Bailey.

Background

Robert Maskell and Jonathan Maskell were twins who were from Edmonton, north London. They were 18 at the time of their birthday on which the killing and robbery took place. They were unemployed. They had been friends with their sister’s boyfriend, Dwane Johnston, since they were 14, when they all attended a school for children with learning difficulties.

Anjelica Hallwood was 74 years old. She was known to the twins as “Nana.” Although she was not the twins’ biological grandmother, she treated them as grandsons and showed them kindness. She had adopted the pair as her own flesh and blood. She was originally from Malta and lived at [23] Granville Avenue, Edmonton, on the ground floor of her home because she was too weak to climb the stairs.

The judge and the prosecution described the robbery as being motivated by greed. The court also heard that the twins believed Mrs Hallwood had money stashed at her home. During trial, the court was told the youths thought she had up to £3,000 hidden in her house. The twins were also said to have been suspected earlier when £800 was stolen from Mrs Hallwood on a previous occasion, but the family dealt with it themselves rather than contact police.

Robert and Jonathan were the sons of the former wife of Mrs Hallwood’s son Peter.

The court heard that the Maskells were said to have lived a fantasy life in internet chatrooms and, in another description of their background, that they spent most of their days on the internet and impressed underage girls on MSN messenger with Gothic fantasies.

The court heard that the brothers had been outcasts and failures by the age of 18 and had learning difficulties and few friends. They were also described as having been sacked from their last job at Paradise Park Zoo in Broxbourne, Herts, for crashing a jeep.

The offence

Robert Maskell and Jonathan Maskell, together with Dwane Johnston, broke into Anjelica Hallwood’s home and ransacked it searching for savings. They had suspected she had up to £3,000 hidden at her house.

The prosecution said that the three broke into Mrs Hallwood’s home and stole more than £1,000. The court heard that during the raid Johnston hit Mrs Hallwood in the face and put pressure on her throat as he pinned her to the ground.

It was told that the body was discovered the next day. A postmortem later revealed that Anjelica Hallwood had been beaten and strangled and that she had been punched so hard that the bones in her face had been smashed.

After leaving the scene, the Maskells bought items with some of the stolen cash. During the sentencing report it was said they spent some of the stolen cash on a mobile top-up card and a kebab before returning to their party. In the trial account, it was said that even though they had left their grandmother for dead, they tried to buy £40 in mobile phone top-up cards on their way home; they left empty handed when the shopkeeper told them some of the cash was no longer legal tender. They rounded off their birthday celebrations with a kebab before returning to the party as if nothing had happened.

The offence was carried out while the twins had left their birthday party in January last year, suspecting that Mrs Hallwood had money hidden in her house.

The trial account also described how, after the break-in, the teenagers fled and dumped Mrs Hallwood’s treasured photographs in a nearby alleyway. It also described that the next morning Mrs Hallwood’s daughter, Joan Hallwood, was unable to get into her mother’s house. Johnston arrived and was able to slip the security chain to gain access, then found her mother lying dead on the floor of her bedroom. It was said that the drawers had been spilled, the wardrobe smashed open, and clothes and blankets strewn over the corpse.

Investigation

During the trial, the court was told that Johnston was at first treated as a witness, but his story began to unravel and he was soon telling officers that the robbery was orchestrated by the Maskell twins. It was stated that Johnston revealed that “Jonathan was going on about robbing her 'cos she had money in the wardrobe.'”

A search of the house revealed that the brothers left their fingerprints on a coffee jar and a boot print on an envelope during the raid.

The trial account included that Robert and Jonathan bought items and were out shopping after the shocking news. It stated that Jonathan bought a mobile phone for £170, only to be mugged by a group of hoodies on his return to Edmonton, and that he then went home to collect more of the stolen cash and bought another.

In the trial account, the Old Bailey was told that the twins did not give evidence during the trial and denied any involvement in the killing. The court heard that in court the Maskells and Johnston tried to blame the killing on each other.

In the narrative describing police accounts, Robert Maskell’s girlfriend Siobhan Henderson was quoted as initially thinking the brothers’ claims were just a sick joke. Henderson later told police:

''Robert said he had killed his grandmother, beaten her up and hit her with a hammer. 'Jonathan also said it as well. I thought they were lying because they were like bragging. I didn't believe it. He said: ''We have killed her.'''''

In that same narrative, Henderson’s friend Hayley Rance was quoted. Hayley Rance recalled:

'He told me they had killed their nana. He also said he had cancer and he was going to hang himself.'

Arrest

No arrest details were provided in the supplied text.

Trial

Robert Maskell and Jonathan Maskell were convicted of manslaughter and robbery. The court cleared them of murder.

On January 9, 2006, the court convicted them of manslaughter of 74-year-old widow Anjelica Hallwood after her body was found the following day. She had been beaten and strangled, and the Old Bailey was told that the brothers and Johnston were cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter. The brothers and Johnston were convicted of robbery, and the offence to which Johnston had already pleaded guilty.

Judge Gerald Gordon remanded the three in custody for sentencing on January 31. At trial, the court heard that Jonathan Maskell asked his mother whether they could leave the party to meet Johnston to get a birthday card from him, and that the party continued in their absence. Anthony Leonard QC, prosecuting, said: “Jonathan Maskell asked his mother whether they could leave the party to meet Johnston to get a birthday card from him. The party continued in their absence,”.

The trial account stated that Johnston was staying at Mrs Hallwood’s home after leaving prison the previous day after serving a sentence for driving offences. The court heard that Johnston arrived and slipped the security chain to gain access to the house.

During trial the prosecution said that in the struggle they killed the pensioner, and that Johnston told Ms Hallwood he thought her mother was dead after being asked to check the grandmother’s bedroom.

The trial account stated that Johnston told the court how the robbery and killing occurred, and that the brothers pulled bags of cash out from her wardrobe and drawers as Johnston punched the pensioner in the face and forced his forearm into her neck.

The narrative describing the case also stated that the twins did not give evidence and denied any involvement in the killing, and that they tried to blame the killing on each other.

Sentencing

On February 2, 2006, Judge Gerald Gordon sentenced the three at the Old Bailey. The court sentenced the three to nine years for manslaughter for the twins and a further seven years for robbery. The sentences were to be served concurrently in a young offenders’ institute, and all three must serve an extended license period of three years after their release.

Judge Gerald Gordon said:

"For reasons of pure greed you set out to rob her. You could so easily have arranged to steal while she was out and safe. It is difficult to imagine a more despicable crime."

In the sentencing report, Judge Gerald Gordon also said:

"It is difficult to imagine a more despicable crime."
"For reasons of pure greed and regardless of the effect upon here you set out to rob her."
"You could so easily have arranged to steal while she was out and safe but not a bit of it."
"Even though you knew that in order to rob she would have to be restrained to enable you to carry out your ransacking of what little remained to her, that is what you chose to do."
"The fact that this thuggery was mindless is no consolation to Mrs Hallwood or her immediately family, who have been devastated by what has happened."

After the case, Detective Sergeant Derek Cameron said:

"The twins visited her regularly when they were children and lived nearby as extended family. She showed them nothing but kindness."

Outcome

Robert Maskell and Jonathan Maskell were cleared of murder. They were convicted of manslaughter and robbery of 74-year-old Anjelica Hallwood. Johnston was also convicted as part of the robbery and manslaughter case, but cleared of murder.

Aftermath

Outside court, Peter Hallwood said he felt a mixture of emotions ranging “from depression and sadness to extreme anger”. He said:

"I am struggling to cope with the knowledge that the twins and Johnston were capable of doing this," he said.
"They are the lowest of the low, cold and callous, and I can't believe they would bite the hand that feeds them."

The narrative also included that as Robert and Jonathan Maskell walked down to the cells, Mrs Hallwood’s son shouted: “Bye, scumbags”.