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Drug dealer guilty of murdering carer who fostered more than 50 children Drug dealer guilty of murdering carer who fostered more than 50 children
(35 minutes later)
A small-time drug dealer has been found guilty of murdering a 79-year-old foster carer to more than 50 children before burning her house down to cover his tracks.A small-time drug dealer has been found guilty of murdering a 79-year-old foster carer to more than 50 children before burning her house down to cover his tracks.
Gareth Dack, 33, stole £700 and a new 49in television from Norma Bell after throttling her to death with a telephone cord at her home in Hartlepool in April last year.Gareth Dack, 33, stole £700 and a new 49in television from Norma Bell after throttling her to death with a telephone cord at her home in Hartlepool in April last year.
Dack, a childhood friend of one of Bell’s long-term foster children, faces a life sentence after being convicted by a jury of murder and arson following a trial at Teesside crown court. There were cries of “yes” from the public gallery as the jury foreman returned guilty verdicts to the charges of murder and arson. Dack blinked frequently as he was convicted but did not visibly react.
The trial heard that Dack preyed on his elderly victim, who lived alone following the death of husband, John, in 2010, because he thought she was a “soft touch”. Dack, a childhood friend of one of Norma Bell’s long-term foster children, faces life in prison when he is sentenced on Thursday morning by the judge, Mrs Justice Whipple.
Only a week before the killing, Bell lent him £10 when he asked to borrow money because he was off work sick. He returned to her home the following week, the court heard, high on cannabis and cocaine after a row with his girlfriend about his drug use. The trial at Teesside crown court heard that Dack preyed on his elderly victim, who lived alone following the death of husband, John, in 2010, because he thought she was a “soft touch”.
Christopher Tehrani QC, prosecuting, told jurors that Dack strangled the elderly widow to death then ransacked her house looking for cash. Since 1965, Norma and her late husband, John, fostered more than 50 babies and toddlers in the small coastal town of Hartlepool, north-east England. She was known as the town’s supermum, devoting her life to care for dozens of children for over 30 years. Six of the foster children stayed for the long-term, becoming part of Norma and John’s family alongside their own three “blood” children.
He stole £700 that one of Bell’s sons had given her for safe-keeping and the brand new television, which she had been keeping for one of her grandsons. In a statement after Dack’s conviction, her family paid tribute to the woman they described as having “a heart as big as a lion”.
The trial heard that Dack sold the television to an associate for £60 before returning to Bell’s house at about 11pm on 2 April 2016. Using Bell’s landline phone, Dack made several calls to the adult television channel Babestation while his victim lay dead or dying nearby. The family said: “The events of the 3rd April last year turned our lives upside-down and in the following 10 months we have endured pain we did not conceive possible.
He then lit fires in the rear reception room and in her bedroom before turning on gas hobs to try to cause an explosion. “Norma Bell was our confidant, our friend, our crutch to lean on, our shoulder to cry on and not least she was our mam. Her murder has left an enormous gap in our lives and forgiveness will never be given.”
The court heard that Dack’s DNA was found on a used match on the kitchen floor, inside Bell’s handbag and on the ligature around her neck, as well as on the television he sold. They said she had helped raise 12 grandchildren since retiring as as foster carer in the 90s and that she would tease them about who would be first to give her a great-grandchild.
Bell’s mobile phone, which had an emergency button on the back, was found in the garage of Dack’s parents’ home on the same street as his victim’s house. “This is something she dearly looked forward to yet this is something she will now never get to see,” the family said.
Bell, a former bookkeeper who managed her late husband’s business, fostered more than 50 babies and toddlers before retiring in the 1990s due to old age. She had three biological children plus six long-term foster children who were treated as the Bells’ own, the trial heard. “Gareth Dack brutally murdered our mother in the place she should have been safest and then burnt out the family home, destroying everything she had for a few quid to feed his drug habit, and his actions have left us all in pieces.”
The trial heard that only a week before the killing, she had lent Dack £10 when he asked to borrow money because he was off work sick. Her son, Graham Bell, told the trial that he had been concerned for his mother’s safety when she told him about lending Dack the money.
As he left her home on 2 April, Graham Bell told his mother he would buy her a lock and chain for the door, and said: “If anyone knocks, have all your doors locked, go to the front room, look out of the bay window and if you don’t recognise them shoo them away”.
Later that evening, at 7.32pm, there was another knock at the door. It was her long-term foster son, John Ahmed, with some chips he bought her from the takeaway. He didn’t stay long. He was the last family member to see her alive.
The following morning, at 8.20am, firefighters battered down the red front door as thick, black smoke billowed out. Her lifeless body was found on the rear ground floor reception room, known affectionately as “dad’s room”.
Her trousers had been pulled down below her knees and her tights and underwear cut from the waist. A telephone cable was wrapped tightly around her throat. It was, in the words of prosecutor Christopher Tehrani QC, a “brutal and unnecessary” murder.
On the night of the murder, Dack was high on cocaine and cannabis. He had stormed out of the home he shared with his partner and their two children after a furious row about money and drugs. He headed straight to the 79-year-old’s home.
It is not clear what happened over the following hour, but by 10pm he had stolen an unboxed 49in television that Norma Bell had been keeping for her nephew. He sold it to a friend for £60, smoked cannabis, snorted two lines of cocaine, then returned to her house.
While she lay dying or dead, he made several calls to the adult television channel Babestation, twice speaking to the on-screen performer. Those explicit conversations, later replayed by police experts, were the first of several costly mistakes that led to Dack’s downfall.
On the morning of 3 April, Dack tried to cover his tracks by lighting fires in the rear reception room and bedroom. He turned on gas hobs to try to cause an explosion.
His DNA was found on a used match on the kitchen floor, inside the victim’s handbag and on the ligature around her neck, as well as on the television he sold. The victim’s mobile phone, which had an emergency SOS button on the back, was found in the garage of Dack’s parents’ home, 200 yards up the road.
In the witness box, Dack wove a web of lies to try cover his tracks. His DNA was on the matches, he claimed, because he had lit a gas fire for her the night before she died. Her mobile phone was in his parents’ garage, he said, because she lent it to him when his own phone ran out of battery.
He said he had bought the boxed television from a stranger for £50 and sold it to a friend for £60. Explaining why his DNA was found on her underwear, Dack claimed he had moved her laundry when he was looking for a tool to fix a problem in her back garden.
But the jury was not convinced and Dack was convicted of murder and arson after jury deliberations lasting four and a half hours.
Outside court, Ch Supt Alastair Simpson of Cleveland police said that throughout the trial Dack “refused to take any responsibility for his actions”.
He added: “Norma would have celebrated her 80th birthday the following month and had lived in her home on Westbourne Road for 27 years. Norma was a mother to nine children. Her family describe her as a ‘loving and caring woman who was full of life’.
“Gareth Dack preyed on Norma’s caring nature and murdered her for his personal gain before trying to cover his tracks by setting fire to her home. I’d like to acknowledge the bravery of Norma’s family throughout this trial and thank them for their cooperation during the investigation.”