A man who killed his own mother by setting her on fire was made the sole beneficiary of her will just months before the murder.
Former offshore worker William Kelly, 47, shouted “die, die” as Cathy Kelly was engulfed in flames.
Minutes earlier he had brutally assaulted the 71-year-old, punching and kicking her and leaving her lying on the floor of her home in Kilmarnock.
It has now emerged that in the run-up to the attack in 2017, Kelly had been granted control of his mother’s £70,000 life savings.
Mum-of-two Cathy, a former care assistant, signed a will only six months earlier where she bequeathed her entire estate to Kelly.
Her daughter, Catherine Cree, who was estranged from her mother in the months leading up to her death, was left nothing.
Kelly cannot now profit from his mum’s death as a result of his murder conviction but waited more than four years before giving up control of her estate.
Documents seen by our sister paper, the Sunday Mail, show another relative was granted beneficiary of the will at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court last year.
A source close to the family who did not want to be identified said: “It’s very suspicious timing to make sure everything is awarded to you after that person dies and then a mere seven months later they do.
“It makes you wonder what the motive was in killing her and how long that idea had been in Kelly’s head.
“Thankfully he cannot now benefit from his mother’s hard-earned money and is behind bars where he belongs.”
A jury at the High Court in Glasgow took just 90 minutes to unanimously convict Kelly for the killing. He was told he must spend 23 years behind bars before being considered for release.
Throughout the trial, Kelly denied murdering his mother at the home they shared on February 11, 2017.
Kelly claimed she was set on fire by accident after petrol he had spilled on himself in the garage ignited as he lit a cigarette.
But the jury heard there was no trail of petrol from the garage into the living room and were told if the blaze had happened as Kelly claimed, he would have been more badly injured.
When he was being treated for burns in Glasgow Royal Infirmary, he told a nurse: “I did what I had to do. I was provoked. She got what she deserved.”
Kelly’s former partner Eleanor Banks witnessed the murder and gave evidence for the prosecution. She told the court: “I couldn’t stop him.
“I screamed, ‘You’re going to kill your mum,’ and he was saying, ‘Die.’ The liquid smelled like petrol. He set fire to the bottom of her legs. She went up in the blink of an eye.”
At the time of her death, Catherine had an estate valued at £68,715. That included her £35,000 home in Kilmarnock and money held in savings accounts and a life assurance policy. She had appointed her son and Eleanor as executors of her will to take care of her affairs in the event of her death.
However, they have both now resigned as executors of the will and the estate has been transferred to a granddaughter.
Eleanor said: “I tried to talk Cathy out of changing her will many times.
“I tried to get her to see her daughter, who didn’t deserve to be taken out of the will. She was her daughter and loved her.
“I tried many times to get her to see sense. But she was obviously brainwashed.”
Eleanor added: “There isn’t a day goes by that I don’t think about what happened. He is an evil, evil scumbag.
“When I was told I was an executor, I didn’t even know what that was. All I knew was I didn’t want anything to do with the will or anything else.
“I was happy to resign as an executor and hand over all the money to the other family member.”
Under Scots law a murderer cannot inherit from their victim’s estate. However, it is possible to remain an executor of a person’s will.
An executor can be removed in certain circumstances, which can delay the winding up of an estate.
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