IT was a cold-hearted murder that shocked the sleepy village of Fairfield in Bedfordshire to its very core.
A much-loved local pensioner, murdered, dismembered and callously discarded in public bins by the person she’d come to think of as family.
Annette Smith was murdered and dismembered by her lodger Scott Paterson[/caption]
DCI Katie Dounias led the murder investigation into the shocking case[/caption]
Annette Smith, 74, had lived with Scott Paterson, 45, for 11 years – she’d invited him to stay with her for free in 2012 in exchange for running errands and keeping her company, after he split from his ex and sold their home.
Annette, who’d split from her husband 14 years previously, and Paterson had become best friends, even holidaying together, hosting dinner parties and occasionally sharing a bed.
But when she had a stroke in 2018, callous Paterson grew tired of caring for her, and on November 8, 2023, he suffocated her with a pillow while she slept.
Sickeningly Paterson – who had previously worked as a butcher – then dismembered her body using a saw and kitchen knife, before going to great lengths to cover his tracks.
He was eventually snared when police tracked Moonpig cards he’d been sending while posing as Annette from the home they shared – despite telling her friends and family she’d gone away.
The harrowing case is examined in the new series of 24 Hours in Police Custody, which features the chilling moment he finally confesses to his sinister crime.
Speaking to The Sun, DCI Katie Dounias, who led the murder investigation, said there were alarmingly few red flags when police first interviewed Paterson in the wake of Annette’s disappearance.
“He came across as a very meek and mild person,” she said, adding he had no previous convictions.
“There was nothing that immediately rang alarm bells with him… nobody had a bad word to say about him or against him.”
She added: “They [Paterson and Annette] had a really good relationship by all accounts. They were best friends, which just makes it all the more harrowing, really, that he went on to do what he did.”
In the show Annette’s stepson, Jason, revealed his shock at her brutal murder at the hands of someone he thought loved her.
Jason said: “I trusted him so much. He is a manipulative murderer and someone that knew what he was doing.
“There is no forgiveness for what he has done and I hope he rots in prison.”
In the early years of living together Paterson and Annette “got on like a house on fire”, with the latter coming to see her lodger “like a son”.
But following her stroke the dynamic changed and Paterson became her carer, as her mobility issues prevented her from doing basic domestic tasks.
It was Paterson who reported Annette as a missing person, claiming he last saw her climb into a woman’s car with a packed suitcase.
He claimed she told him she’d be gone a few days, but he never saw her again.
Moonpig card clue
Suspicions began to arise when family members realised that despite receiving emails, Moonpig cards and gifts from Annette, they hadn’t seen her for several months.
Police struggled to identify the woman described by Paterson as “white” and “plump-ish but not fat” who he claimed collected Annette, and there was no CCTV or witnesses to support his claim.
Cracks started to show in his story; DCI Dounias said: “Speaking further with friends and family, it became evident that Annette was quite infirm… it just didn’t tally with what Paterson was saying.
“Friends and family started to raise concerns about whether she was capable of getting herself out of bed, packing a suitcase and leaving.”
Detectives traced the IP address of emails and cards allegedly sent by Annette while she was ‘away’ to her address, and a search of the property revealed Annette’s passport and clothing inside.
I trusted Paterson so much. He is a manipulative murderer and someone that knew what he was doing
Jason
Annette’s neighbour Lois recalled how Paterson “really changed in his demeanour” when the missing person investigation ramped up.
She said: “I saw him one day parked outside the tree which was Annette’s space. He’d gone from being this flamboyant extrovert to trying to go unnoticed, if you like.
“He’d put weight on, his hair was longer, he was drinking more, it was almost like there was two sides to him.”
On April 30, 2024, Paterson was arrested, and it didn’t take long before he broke down under interrogation and confessed to the brutal killing.
A chilling moment in the documentary shows the moment Paterson calmly told police how he killed Annette in a premeditated attack.
Prior to killing Annette, Paterson took several weeks off work, claiming he needed an operation to remove a tumour. Instead he was plotting the sinister murder.
Recalling the moment he placed a pillow over her face, Paterson said: “I was weirdly calm, had the TV on. I think because I’d been thinking about it for quite a few weeks it was just something that had played over in my mind.
“So it was almost like I was ready when the time seemed right.
“I went downstairs after Annette had fallen asleep and I put a pillow over her face until she stopped breathing and I left her in bed for the night.”
Chilling confession
The next morning Paterson moved Annette to the under stairs cupboard, where he left her for “quite some time”.
When asked by police where Annette is, Paterson chillingly replied: “There isn’t a full body.”
Paterson told how after several weeks he took a knife and a hacksaw and removed Annette’s feet, followed by her hands, admitting that was particularly strange because it was like “holding hands with Annette”.
Having worked in a butchers, Paterson claimed he had seen “the way they do it”, along with inspiration from horror films.
The only time the criminal became emotional was when he described decapitating Annette’s head.
There isn’t a full body
Scott Paterson
Over several weeks Paterson chopped Annette into 10 pieces and discarded them in plastic bags in public bins around Letchworth.
He then confessed that he crammed her torso into a suitcase and stashing it in his storage unit.
He claimed living with her had “become difficult” after her stroke because she was constantly calling him for help.
DCI Dounias recalled how he’d come “to the end of his tether”, adding: “He describes her as being quite demanding and he’d just had enough.
“Whether that is the full truth, I can’t really say, and it may be something that we never know.
“I think what I would say is that he seems to be quite a complex character. There almost seems to be various different sides to him.
“So it’s difficult to know whether he was genuinely remorseful of what he did, or whether the remorse was because he was found out, or because of the relief. It’s really difficult to read his reactions.”
It later emerged Paterson had been in £30,000 of credit card debt, and had stolen Annette’s jewellery before selling it online for £5,000.
This added to the hypothesis of a financial motive, according to DCI Dounias.
Sinister pause
When asked by police if he had killed before, Paterson paused – something that “concerned” DCI Dounias.
“We did pick up on that pause… it was a little bit of a surprise and a concern, shall we say,” she said.
“So we did make some inquiries into whether there could have been any previous history… but we didn’t uncover anything that we could certainly offer any proof for.”
Paterson was sentenced to a minimum term of 20 years’ imprisonment on November 4, 2024.
At sentencing Judge Justice Murray said: “You had been contemplating killing Annette Smith before you had finally killed her.
“This shows you had been thinking about and planning her death for some time. After you killed Annette Smith, you told elaborate lies.”
Despite an extensive search, Annette’s entire body was never found.
DCI Dounias admitted she was “pleased” with the sentence, adding: “For him to receive 20 years, even though he pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, I think is quite telling of the magnitude of what he did to Annette.”
24 Hours in Police Custody: The Butcher of Suburbia airs Monday 30 June on Channel 4 at 9pm.
