A PENSIONER has been convicted of lying to police following the murder of a millionairess whose body was buried down a garden well.

Jennifer Creasey was found guilty yesterday of perverting the course of justice in relation to the death of Patricia Goodband, 76.

Christopher Symons was convicted of battering Mrs Goodband – his business partner – before hiding her body down a 12ft-deep shaft in a bid to inherit her fortune.

Creasey, who was in a relationship with Symons, admitted writing a fake Christmas card from “Sue” to “Pat” on her lover’s instructions.

The card indicated that Mrs Goodband was due to arrive in Stockton-on-Tees on December 22 last year.

But the 73-year-old said she didn’t know what it was for and was cleared of using it to pervert the course of justice.

But Creasey, of Hale Road, Benson, was found guilty of lying in a statement to police about when she last saw Symons.

She told police she had not seen him since before Christmas, but the jury found this was a lie. She had told the jury she had forgotten when it was.

Symons was convicted of murder as he appeared with Creasey yesterday at Reading Crown Court.

Symons, 63, wrote his plan, which he called “The 12 days of Xmas”, with a day-by-day list for himself of tasks to try to cover up the murder.

It was found in his car by detectives searching for clues to Mrs Goodband’s murder.

Mrs Goodband was “emotionally attached” to Symons, her friend of over 30 years, the jury previously heard.

In 2008 she created a will in which she left two properties worth an estimated £800,000 and her savings of £230,000 to Symons.

Her body was found in the deep well shaft in the garden of her home in Woodham, near Aylesbury, on January 21.

She had been repeatedly beaten around the head before her body was thrown into the well and covered by 22 tonnes of soil, stone and bags of rubbish.

Symons, of Cambridge Street, Aylesbury, was found guilty of murder by the jury after just over four hours’ deliberation.

His sister, Kathleen Adams, 74, of Aylesbury Road, Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, was cleared of one count of perverting the course of justice.

Symons and Creasey will be sentenced next week.

Speaking after the verdicts, Detective Superindendent Chris Ward said: “It was a complicated investigation where Symons attempted, by his series of lies, to railroad a missing person investigation.

“He used a web of lies as part of his deceit, but the jury saw through that.

“This was an horrific, cold-blooded pre-planned murder.”