Daughter of murdered Sutton grandmother Maureen Cosgrove reveals 'bittersweet' feeling seeing newborn's dad jailed (From Your Local Guardian)

Daughter of murdered Sutton grandmother Maureen Cosgrove reveals 'bittersweet' feeling seeing newborn's dad jailed

7:10am Friday 20th November 2009

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The daughter of murdered Maureen Cosgrove has felt “bittersweet” since the father of her newborn was jailed for strangling her mother.

Lucy Rees, who gave birth several months ago to George Maben’s son, said her baby was “gorgeous”, but her new happiness was tainted with sadness.

She said: “The situation is bittersweet, the baby is an absolute joy and he has enabled me to be really strong when it has been very difficult.

"There have been sometimes when I have wanted to cry but I can’t because I have had to look after the baby.

“But when he goes to sleep at night I do cry about the situation.

“He is something great that has come out of something awful.”

She said her two eldest children already understand what happened to their grandmother and she would explain to her son what his father did when the time was right.

She said: “Because my two eldest sons used to live with my mum, they were incredibly close to her and they are really feeling it, particularly after losing my dad too.

“But they are very good children, they are quite resilient.

“One of them said yesterday: ‘It is not fair nanny and grandad left us.’ I said: ‘They have left us, but they are still together in heaven.’ “I got the feeling he was feeling quite angry that he didn’t have them any longer. He said: ‘Geordie’s not my friend any more.’”

Mrs Rees said she was making “memory boxes” with her children to remember their grandmother by.

She said: “If you take away the most awful thing that has happened to mum, then what we are left with is lovely memories from before, not the one left by Geordie.

“Mum was fantastic, she was incredibly supportive, not just of me, but of all of us. She was an absolute star.

“I now have three boys to keep me busy. My mum always used to joke that I was going for a five-a-side football team.”

Mrs Rees, who has received treatment for alcohol problems, said she originally fell for Maben, who was born in London to Scottish parents, because he was “very kind” to her.

She said: “Materialistically he didn’t have much to offer as he wasn’t working. I just loved him for him.

“But I think because of the problems I had at the time, I don’t think I was being a good judge of character, my own problems were perhaps clouding my judgement.”

Mrs Rees said she had continued to send him love letters in custody, because she was unaware of the evidence police had against him.

She said: “I heard some of the evidence for the first time sitting in court.

“It made me feel physically sick. It is very hard to explain the feeling, it is just the utter betrayal.”

Now off alcohol for seven months Mrs Rees said she has “learned a lot the hard way”.

She said: “To look back now at the lifestyle I had before being pregnant it was chaotic, but now it just seems like a terrible loss of my time and my mum’s life.

“It is now all about staying strong for my family and moving forward for the sake of my children. I don’t want to keep on raking over the past.”

Speaking about the length of his sentence, she said she was still “numb” from events and that nothing would ever bring back her mother.

She said his attempt to defend himself by pointing the finger at her had added “insult to injury” and was “incredibly unkind”.

Mrs Rees said: “I still have nightmares about finding my mum. The nightmares have expanded on different subjects, but they always surround my mum’s death.

“Sometimes it is the actual vision when I found her.

"I have had a few recurring dreams when I imagine the build up to her death; I think the evidence I have heard in court has built up in my head and it makes for very, very vivid nightmares.”

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