British Family Googled 'Easiest Way To Kill An Old Person' Before Beating Grandpa With Bricks

Before attempting to murder an 89-year-old relative for inheritance money, a British family Googled "the easiest way to kill an old person," according to authorities.

An English court convicted the victim's 49-year-old daughter, 16-year-old granddaughter, 19-year-old grandson and his 17-year-old girlfriend of conspiracy to murder for their involvement in a botched attack on the senior using bricks, the Guardian reports.

The victim's 14-year-old granddaughter was convicted of taking part in the assault last November in a village near Winchester in Hampshire, according to the Daily Mail.

The defendants' names were not released in an effort to protect the anonymity of the underage offenders.

The plot began when the victim's adopted daughter, who was reportedly paid to be his caretaker, began scheming with her children to obtain inheritance money.

At first, the family considered poisoning the patriarch with toadstools, prosecutors alleged. They later settled on trying to "frighten him to death" by throwing bricks through his windows and cutting the fuel line on his car in hopes it would explode, the Guardian notes.

According to newspaper, the family searched the web using terms including:

• "how to kill someone"
• "10 easy ways to kill someone with no trace"
• "can you kill someone with a punch?"
• "dangerous drugs for the elderly"
• "easiest way to kill an old person"
• "if you hit someone across the back of the head with a brick will they die or just get a bruise?"

Prosecutors say they settled on attacking the victim, who suffers from dementia, with bricks wrapped in plastic bags. The assault left the victim with 11 injuries to his head and body, according to the Daily Mail.

The victim's daughter was sentenced to 17 years behind bars. The younger defendants were sentenced to varying terms in youth detention centers.

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Comments

[Douglas Campbell]

05:48 PM on 10/09/2011

I guess a brick wrapped in plastic wasn't the easiest way to kill an old person!

[wonderfullone]

01:26 PM on 10/08/2011

Nice family!

[zekolama]

01:56 PM on 10/07/2011

This qualifies for huge DUH!

Hell the first thing the police do when any crime is committed is confiscate your personal computer!

[Red45]

06:07 PM on 10/08/2011

Sounds pretty smart to me.

[John Di Saia]

07:38 PM on 10/06/2011

I hope they like D Block.

[jadeaic]

11:10 AM on 10/06/2011

They googled it and ended up using bricks????? Couldn't think of anything easier? I bet they are cut out of the will now! Morons!

[dvsinla]

08:52 AM on 10/05/2011

it's nice to know all stew pid people aren't all in america

[Alices Amanita]

06:09 AM on 10/05/2011

Wow.

[Mikhail Kalashnikov]

12:50 AM on 10/05/2011

Wow- there was MANY ways to get money. I guess they wanted IT ALL! Finally they got it all- that the law now provides now-NOTHING EVER! That makes me think, will MY grand kids and so on want to murder me for what I worked ALL my life for?

[NotBetterThanYou]

09:52 PM on 10/04/2011

For many years the ingenuity of the British race when it came to murdering one's family members was rightly celebrated. Family secrets, red herrings and skeletons in closets all proliferated, protected by the rigid class system and many stiff upper lips.

But now we have... this embarrassing cock-up. These people don't deserve relatives to murder.

Agatha Christie would be appalled.

[Dan Crabtree]

08:42 PM on 10/04/2011

Wrongful convictions..all are innocent and did not commit this crime..

[Jay from Ottawa]

08:06 PM on 10/04/2011

Hope the grandkids are happy, not only did they lose their mom, they just lost any and all inheritance they might have gotten had their waited.

I hope he donates his estate to a charity which fights elder abuse. This is sickening.

[Wendy Stewart]

06:20 PM on 10/04/2011

That poor old guy. You live all those years and your own family wants to do you in. Thank god they were caught.

[Max Shaw]

04:33 PM on 10/04/2011

Wow.

[shempbat]

03:16 PM on 10/04/2011

These cretins kinda bring new meaning to the term, "Thick as a brick"!

[glenaurora]

04:57 PM on 10/04/2011

Correct me if I'm wrong. Wasn't Shemp a member of ( At least for a period of time) the "Three Stooges" cronism

[shempbat]

09:52 AM on 10/05/2011

Yes, in fact, he was the original 3rd Stooge in the vaudeville act with Ted Healy. He ruturned to the act after Curley suffered a stroke and was unable to continue.

[John Inquirer]

03:16 PM on 10/04/2011

17 years?! That's it?! There's something seriously wrong with the British justice system. The punishment should fit the crime because justice is balance. Since Britain won't take the life of a person who takes the life of another person, it should adopt the option closest in severity. That would be life imprisonment. Britain should be ashamed.

[Kat Ingalls]

08:13 PM on 10/05/2011

Yes, I would have 3 individuals of comparable age and strength beat them with bricks.

[Red45]

06:09 PM on 10/08/2011

They didn't kill him, in which case, their punishment was severe---and, in my opinion, well-deserved.