Daughter heard mum beg for life before killer beat her to death on Ring doorbell

A daughter could only watch helplessly on a Ring doorbell camera as her mother begged for her life before being beaten to death by an intruder.

Killer Dean Mears smashed his way into the home of vulnerable pensioner Catherine Flynn before dragging her from bed and stamping on her face and neck 15 times.

Natasha Flynn-Farrell, 38, was helpless as she heard her mum pleading for her life over the camera at her north Wales home last October.

All she could do was scream down the phone for the killer to leave her mother alone in the one-minute attack.

By the time police rushed to her house, Mears, 34, had already fled, leaving Catherine with injuries likened to those suffered in high-speed car crashes.

The ‘frail and extremely vulnerable’ grandmother, known as Cathy, died a day later when her family decided to switch off her life support.

Her killer, who claimed he was too high on drugs to know what he was doing, admitted manslaughter but was convicted of murder following a nine-day trial.

Mum-of-one Natasha is so traumatised by what happened that she is terrified of hearing a Ring doorbell sound.

She told the Daily Mail: ‘I will never get over the way she died, so brutally and needlessly. He targeted a vulnerable old lady, in her own bed, and beat her until she could take no more. No punishment will ever be enough.

‘I am struggling with my grief and severe PTSD, and I miss mum so much.’

Natasha was about to have her nightly call with her mum when a Ring doorbell notification alerted her to Mears’ efforts to force his way into Cathy’s house.

Within seconds, she heard the sickening thuds as the 69-year-old, who used a Zimmer frame, was pulled from her bed and repeatedly smashed on the face.

Natasha added: ‘Mum always rang me around 10.30pm to let me know she was safe in bed.

‘I picked my phone up ready for her call and noticed a notification from Ring doorbell.

‘I clicked on it, knowing Mum would not have a visitor this late.

‘The attack lasted less than a minute, but I was hysterical. I was trying to use the microphone, screaming at him to leave her alone.

‘I called 999 and they made me wait for the police to arrive before I drove round to Mum’s. I was in such a state, I just wanted to see her, but they wouldn’t let me in.

‘I’d convinced myself she’d somehow escaped injury, that he had smashed the place up and stolen whatever he wanted.’

Mears, who the judge said had a ‘long-standing addiction to harmful illicit drugs’, then ran out of the house and got rid of his bloodstained clothes to try and cover his tracks.

But the clear doorbell footage meant he was quickly arrested.

After being found guilty of murder, Mears was jailed for 28 years.

At his sentencing, Judge Rhys Rowlands told him: ‘You dragged her out of bed…stamped on her face 15 times, pretty much breaking every bone in her face.

‘She was frail and extremely vulnerable. She was a very small lady. Plainly terrified, Mrs Flynn can be heard to plead with you, but you showed no mercy…you can be heard repeatedly stamping on her face.

‘Your adult life has been blighted by you taking illicit drugs…..I’m quite satisfied that this case was a murder for gain. You didn’t break into Mrs Flynn’s home intending to kill her – as such the murder was not premeditated.

‘I cannot ignore 15 blows were aimed by you. This was unusual savagery. You are a dangerous individual.’

The family will now have samples from Cathy’s body returned to them so they will soon receive her ashes as a whole.

Cathy raised three daughters and a son with her husband, Mick.

The family had booked their Christmas meal out for December just four days before she was killed.

Daughter Natasha described how her death has devastated the family and turned their lives upside down.

She said: ‘The months after Mum’s death were a blur. We held her funeral, but we couldn’t say a proper goodbye because the police had retained tissue samples as part of their investigation.

‘Christmas came, and I forced myself to go out for the dinner we’d booked, because I knew Mum would want me to be strong. But all I could think of was the empty place where she should have been.

‘Natalia passed her driving test, which Mum would have loved as she’d paid for the lessons. But it was bittersweet. We couldn’t celebrate anything without our Queenie.

‘I had severe PTSD and flashbacks; I couldn’t bear to watch TV in case there was a doorbell ringing. I felt guilty, as though I could have somehow saved her. I was overwhelmed with grief.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.