A grandfather was jailed for 22 years on Thursday for murdering his nine-year-old grandson in a callous act of revenge against his daughter.
Stewart Greene, 65, was looking after Alex Robinson, who suffered from autism, while his daughter Joanne Greene went out to buy a Christmas turkey.
But he was angry that she had refused to let him move into her home - so while she was out, Greene held Alex underwater in the bath, drowning him.
Only weeks beforehand, the grandfather had been released from a psychiatric hospital, despite pleas from his family for him to be kept inside.
At his trial, the retired engineer admitted plotting to kill Alex after his daughter said he could not stay with her.
The prosecution said he had wanted to kill the boy - who had a fear of being in the bath - “in the most brutal way”.
On Thursday, a judge rejected claims that Greene had been suffering from mental health problems, instead branding him manipulative.
Sentencing him at Lincoln Crown Court, Mrs Justice Thirlwall said: “You couldn’t live with your family so you took an extreme and shocking route to get what you wanted…Your callousness cannot be overstated.”
Jurors wiped away tears as Alex’s mother, 38, told the court of her heartbreak at her son’s murder.
Sales worker Miss Greene said: “I cannot understand how I am having to do a statement about my beautiful little boy who has been murdered by own dad. Nothing in the world will ever let me understand it... why my dad had to do this to me.”
She added: “I want to hear my little boy…hear him tell me something, complain I’ve overcooked his bacon or tell me what he’d done at school, but I can’t. I’ll never hear his voice again.”
Alex’s father, John Robinson, said: “Nothing seems important to me in life any more.”
The court heard Miss Greene had warned medics about the dangers of her father being released from a psychiatric unit only weeks before the murder.
She said she told staff at the NHS Peter Hodgkinson centre in Lincoln: “I’m telling you now, if he does something I’m going to go ballistic. You can’t let him out.”
On December 23 last year, Greene arrived at his daughter’s door after a brief stay with ex-wife Andrea Greene, 59.
Miss Greene had previously told her father he could not stay at her home.
Within hours, he had murdered Alex as Miss Greene and her mother shopped at a Tesco just ten minutes away.
They were gone for less than an hour.
Miss Greene had asked Alex to come with her to the shop but he said he would rather stay with his grandfather.
As they left, he was playing on his Xbox.
When the women returned, Greene, who had recently finished a cigarette, told them: “I’ve drowned Alex in the bath.”
Miss Greene pulled her son from the water but she and her mother were unable to revive him. As they frantically dialled 999, Greene sat on the sofa motionless. When paramedics and police arrived, he confessed.
The judge added: “The concern you expressed in the aftermath was only for yourself.”
Michael Evans QC, prosecuting, said: “Greene’s intention was to kill and he did so in the most brutal way.” Giving evidence, Greene of Grimoldby, Lincolnshire, said: “I walked Alex into the bathroom and put him in the bath. I’d run the bath before I called him... I think at the time he asked me if I was going to wash myself. I picked him up and put him in the bath and drowned him.”
Before the trial, Greene told a psychiatrist: “I’m just an evil murdering b****** who killed his grandson.” Dr Philip Joseph, a psychiatrist for 30 years who examined Greene, said the case was “one of the most callous” he had been involved in. Doctors believed Greene was exaggerating his symptoms so he could remain in a facility with round-the-clock care, jurors heard.
Those who knew him as a younger man said he had always had a violent streak but was born into a “nice family”.
He had worked as an engineer for Ruston Gas Turbines and had previously volunteered as a retained fireman.
Daily Mail