‘Maybe she felt it was somehow her fault’

May 16 2008 by Naomi Dunning, Chester Chronicle

THE widow of a pensioner “frightened to death” in a street robbery believes the mother of one of his killers never forgave herself.

Theresa Bhandari, 76, of Garden City, Deeside, was devastated when her husband of 47 years, Amrit Bhandari, died in 2002 after Sarah Campbell begged him for money.

Yesterday, Sarah’s mum Pauline was found dead at her daughter’s grave.

Mrs Bhandari told the Chronicle: “I feel very sad about what she did and the way she was found, but at the same time the news reports don’t say what her daughter went to prison for.

“It is a sad situation. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”

Mrs Bhandari believes Pauline may have blamed herself for her daughter’s fate.

“I think as far as she was concerned she was at the end of a long, long guilt trip,” she said.

“I don’t think she had ever forgiven herself for the way her daughter went. Maybe she felt it was somehow her own fault.”

Mr Bhandari was in Chester for a meeting when he was harassed for money by Sarah Campbell and Kim Woolley, of Liverpool, in Northgate Street.

Of her daughter’s manslaughter conviction, Pauline Campbell had last month insisted: “Sarah and an older woman were told by the two men they were with to approach a man, and ask for money. The two women had no idea the man suffered from heart disease, and had previously had a heart attack.

“They intended him no harm, and there was no violence. In what would otherwise have been an incident of harassment – pestering someone for money – tragically, the man collapsed with a heart attack, and died.”