A CLEANER who killed her 94-year-old employer before stuffing her body in a suitcase and setting it on fire a manure heap was today jailed for life.

A jury at Oxford Crown Court convicted Jolanta Kalinowsica of murdering her boss, Thea Zaudy, whose body was found in a field in Milton Common. Kalinowsica was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years.

The Polish-born cleaner, who had previously stolen from employers in America and lived in West London, enlisted the help of her son, Adrian Lis, 23, to dispose of Mrs Zaudy's body.

Lis was today convicted of assisting an offender and sentenced to four years.

Judge Julian Hall told Kalinowsica: "You murdered Thea Zaudy. She was a defenceless, elderly and frail lady who was otherwise very much on the ball.

"Having killed her you went out and spent all her money in a spending spree.

"The killing was utterly callous and thereafter, you have been devious and manipulative in the way you have got other people to help you.

"The only sentence appropriate is life and that is what I give you.

He ordered that she should serve a minimum of 20 years.

"The aggravating factors are that your victim was so elderly and vulnerable and that you were in her home occupying a position of trust."

The 41-year-old cleaner struck when Thea Zaudy, who fled Nazi Germany in the Second World War, caught her rifling through envelopes of cash which the OAP kept for playing bridge, the jury was told.

Kalinowsica had siphoned off more than £10,000 from the pensioner's savings account before the sprightly OAP had spotted the theft.

After killing her, she stole her debit cards and went off on a spending spree around north London.

The jury heard she then crammed the frail old woman's body into a large suitcase and carried it across the London Underground before being driven out to the Oxfordshire countryside and setting the tiny corpse alight in a field of sheep.

During a three-week trial a jury heard how Kalinowsica had befriended Mrs Zaudy and gained her trust as her cleaner.

She had keys to the pensioner's flat and even told police, initially investigating a missing person, that she was a close friend.

Then on Friday, July 13, the crumpled body of the OAP, of Kensington Park Road, Knightsbridge, West London, was found stuffed into a suitcase and set on fire atop a heap of manure in the Milton Common field.

Mrs Zaudy's charred body had evidence of facial and scalp injuries and fractures to her ribs and legs. However, a post mortem examination listed the main cause of death of asphyxia.

Prosecutor Nicholas Dean had told the jury how this was a murder committed by someone in a position of trust.

"It involved brazenly going into her home and inflicting horrible injuries and concealing what happened," he said.

"The defendant took advantage of the situation to steal from a dead woman."

The prosecuter read a brief witness impact statement from Mrs Zaudy's friend for 60 years, Maureen Daniels, after the conviction.

"She was a proud, kind person who never wanted to be a burden to anyone," it said.

"All of Thea's friends feel that justice has been done. The fact that the crime was motivated by greed is of little comfort."

Kalinowsica and Lis were captured on CCTV lumbering through Notting Hill tube station dragging a suitcase.

They had claimed it was full of heavy laundry.

Fellow defendant Lucasz Gadja then taxied Kalinowsica and her son, with the suitcase, to the countryside where they disposed of the body.

He was cleared of assisting an offender as was Lis' lover 19-year-old Monilca Sienkiewicz.

The jury, which took six hours to convict the cleaner, had been shown pictures of the pensioner's charred remains.

The members had also heard from Kalinowsica herself who claimed her employer had borrowed money from her to pay off debts accumulated during games of bridge.

Judge Hall told Lis: "It is an awful moment for a young man to see his mother sent to prison.

"I have no doubt she was the driving force behind this terrible catalogue of events.

"However you can be seen, rather chillingly, dragging the suitcase along the underground. It's an image we who have seen it will not forget."

Kalinowsica, of Cavendish Avenue, Ealing, West London, wearing a blue jumper, hanged her head as she was led from the dock.

Speaking after the verdict, Acting Detective Superintendant Rob Mason commended the investigation team.

He said: "This was an horrific murder of a 94-year-old lady, who had survived considerable adversity in her life, only for her life to be taken by those she trusted.

"This was a complex and painstaking investigation."