After 12 Years, Woman Admits To Killing Her Dad After Finding His Child Porn, Including Pictures Of Her
Twelve years is a long time for anyone to hold on to a dark secret, but that is exactly what this British woman did. According to reports from the Washington Post, Barbara Coombes has admitted to killing her 87-year-old father and burying him in his backyard, roughly 12 years ago, in January of 2006.
As the story goes, a 51-year-old Coombes had been tending to the garden in her father’s backyard when she returned to the house, while inside she noticed a strange box sitting the dinner table. After opening and going through the contents of the box, Coombes was shocked and repulsed by what she discovered: image after image of pornographic photos of children. The Manchester Evening News reports that Coombes also found explicit photos of herself as a child, according to the Manchester crown court hearing.
The images were said to be a horrific reminder of her childhood, during which her father allegedly abused her and treated her like a “sex slave” — raping her hundreds of times, as cited from the same hearing by the Guardian.
“I could feel a black cloud appearing over me,” Coombes, now 63-years-old, said in court this week. “In a haze of disgust and disbelief, I picked up a shovel I had been gardening with and walked into the living room where my father was standing.”
The first images of Barbara Coombes, and the back garden where she buried her father for 12 years, have been released. Recap this morning's sentencing here https://t.co/fEFqIIGaMV pic.twitter.com/JrmDeu4vDZ
— Andrew Bardsley (@ABardsleyMEN) July 11, 2018
She reportedly hit her father, Kenneth Coombes, in the back of his head, according to the police in charge of the investigation. After which she wrapped the man’s body in a rug and proceeded to take it out to the garden, where she temporarily hid it behind a tree until she was able to find a more permanent hiding place. The next day, reports from the police say she purchased 2,000 pounds of soil and used it to bury the body in a discreet grave.
As for friends and relatives who were curious to Kenneth’s sudden disappearance, Coombes said the elderly war veteran passed away from a heart condition and the hospital had handled his cremation.
“To my knowledge this man Kenneth just disappeared,” a neighbor, Terry Sever, told Manchester Evening News. “I was not that friendly to ask where he went. I just did not see him anymore.”
Coombes held on to her secret until January of this year when she finally admitting to the killing of her father, the cover up, and profiting from his pension benefits. Police say she committed fraud by receiving more than £180,000 in benefits, the equivalent today of about $236,000 USD. In court, she pleaded guilty to manslaughter, not murder, on the grounds of “diminished responsibility.”
Barbara Coombes has been sentenced to nine years in prison.
