Mum denies part in Lyndsey's killing

Gillian Reid, 57, and her 32-year-old daughter Becky are both on trial accused of killing the single mum.

The disabled Platt Bridge woman took to the stand to defend the charges against her, which comprise of Lyndsey’s murder and one of grievous bodily harm with intent towards her daughter’s ex-partner, Samantha Newns.

Reid, dressed in a beige coat, jeans and trainers, told the jury that her daughter’s behaviour was violent “like her dad” but that she stayed living with her because she is “scared” of living alone.

The accused mother-of-four told the jury about Becky Reid’s violent past, when as a child the youngster allegedly “cut all the hair” off her sister’s Barbies and stuck sanitary towels all over her posters.

Gillian Reid said: “She would kick her brother. He had bruises all over his legs. Her dad didn’t help, he used to reward her with money if she did anything.”

Defending, John McDermott QC, asked Reid questions about her daughter’s relationships with Samantha Newns and Lyndsey Vaux.

She told the jury that she was bed-bound most of the time Lyndsey was living in the Sydney Street house, where she died in May last year from what a Home Office pathologist said were the consequences of “prolonged abuse”.

Reid told the jury that she would spend “most of the day” in bed, occasionally getting up if it was “kicking off” between her daughter and her partner.

On one occasion, Gillian Reid reported seeing her daughter “stomping” on Lyndsey’s feet as she stood barefoot in the the kitchen.

She said: “I said ‘pack it in Becky’. She had a towel in her hand. She held it in both hands and put it against my neck and shoved me and told me to mind my own ******* business.

Becky had boots on Lyndsey had nothing on her feet - black and blue they were. She would tell me to go back upstairs where I belong.”

The jury also heard about one occasion where Becky Reid allegedly kicked her mother in the shin, and another incident in which she “broke her jaw”, resulting in the latter having to spend a night in hospital.

When Mr McDermott asked his client if she ever “held Lyndsey down” so her daughter could beat her, Reid replied: “I can hardly walk or stand or do anything like that. I have never-ending pain.”

Reid also explained how she often saw Lyndsey with “black eyes”, and how she saw her with bruises “all over her back” on one occasion.

The court heard Gillian Reid would “hide” inside her Platt Bridge GP surgery to call her other daughters when she thought the violence was getting out of hand.

According to Reid, Lyndsey “let herself go” in the week’s before her death, and looked “miserable with herself”.

She told the jury: “At one time she would do anything for you. It got to the point where she couldn’t be bothered. She did let herself go. We had to ask her to have a bath because people were turning round saying she stank. She wouldn’t wash her hands and face. She looked really ill. She was a dirty grey. She looked miserable, down and fed up.”

Proceeding