TV actress let her mother's body rot

A television actress who left her mother's rotting corpse "wedged" behind a bedroom door so she could claim her pension money was jailed for 11 months yesterday.

The body of Olive Maddock, 95, was left to decompose on the bedroom floor of her mouse and fly-ridden Merseyside home, "lying amongst rubbish and clutter" for between two and six months, by her daughter Hazel Maddock, 61, and granddaughter Jasmine Maddock, 35.

The pair were sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court after Hazel, a television extra who has worked on Channel 4 dramas Brookside and Hollyoaks, had pleaded guilty to unlawful prevention of burial. She also admitted fraudulently obtaining one payment of her dead mother's state pension and pension credit, worth £211.36. Jasmine, who admitted leaving a corpse unburied, was given a 26-week suspended sentence.

Judge Gerald Clifton said what they had done was "despicable". The body was found after a neighbour reported concerns about Olive Maddock to police.