A pensioner who stabbed her film director sister to death before stealing her Rolex and locking the victim’s dog in a bathroom has been found guilty of murder.
It took jurors less than a day to find Nancy Pexton guilty of violently killing sister Jennifer Abbott Dauward.
Homeless Pexton is said to have been ‘jealous’ of her sister, who was nine months her senior.
Pexton, who turned 70 during the trial, turned up at Ms Abbott’s home in Camden, north London, when she stabbed her to death and then fled the scene.
The killer bound her sister with gaffer tape and left her to die, partially closed, to be discovered by a concerned relative three days later.
Pexton declined to give evidence during her trial at the Old Bailey, instead relying on her flimsy defence that a drug dealer living in her sister’s block of flats was responsible.
Forensics experts later discovered Pexton’s clothes had been saturated with her sister’s blood – which Pexton sought to explain by saying she had given Ms Abbott a hug as she suffered a nosebleed.
Jurors at the Old Bailey convicted Pexton today following a three-week trial. She will be sentenced at a later date.
Nancy Pexton with sister Jennifer Abbott in a photo taken in the USA, shared on social media
Ms Abbott with pet dog Prince who had been shut in a bathroom, the court was told
Prosecutor William Boyce KC told jurors how homeless Pexton called her sister and spoke on the phone for around 15 minutes, shortly after 11.30am on June 10 last year.
She arrived at Ms Abbott’s flat in Mornington Place, Camden, north London, shortly before 1pm, carrying some KFC, and left around an hour later, when she called her GP saying she felt suicidial, the court heard.
Pexton said she had a blackout about what happened earlier, jurors were told, but later gave a full account, and denied assaulting her sister.
He said: ‘The prosecution say that the defendant murdered her sister, Jennifer Abbott, on June 10, 2025.
‘They spoke by phone that morning, before the defendant then travelled to her sister’s flat by bus.
‘The murder took place in that time.
‘The defendant then left the flat and called her – Ms Pexton’s – GP, saying she had taken an overdose.
‘She was taken to hospital and stayed there until her arrest.
‘She said she could not remember what happened in the previous 90 minutes.’
Ms Abbott, a 69-year-old also known as Sarah Steinberg, was found three days later, covered by a sheet, with significant injuries to the upper half of her body.
The prosecutor said: ‘It was obvious very quickly that Ms Abbott was dead. She was lying primarily face up, but slightly on her right side.
‘Her head pointed towards the window and her feet pointed towards the door of the room leading into the hallway.
‘Her right arm was extended under the coffee table, between which and the sofa she lay, and her left arm was across her body. She appeared to be wearing only her knickers.’
There is no evidence Ms Abbott was sexually abused, although there was duct tape over her mouth, the court heard.
Mr Boyce said Ms Abbott ordinarily wore a bracelet and a gold Rolex watch, which had diamonds in place of roman numerals.
Ms Abbott was so attached to the timepiece that she would often keep it on even while washing, the court heard.
Pexton carried out the brutal knife attack on her sibling Ms Abbott before taking the diamond-encrusted timepiece (pictured) she was known to wear every day
But the Rolex, which had significant sentimental value, was not discovered on her dead body, and was instead later found among her younger sister’s possessions.
Mr Boyce said: ‘Ms Abbott was wearing the bracelet, but the Rolex watch was missing.
‘As you will hear, when police went to hospital and spoke to the defendant… they searched her property and in one of her bags was her sister’s watch – the watch she never took off, the watch to which she was greatly attached.’
The court heard Pexton told police her sister ‘asked me to look after it’.
Mr Boyce said Ms Abbott was not in good health, and described as ‘frail and inactive’, although she regularly walked her dog, a large Corgi.
Mr Boyce told jurors the ‘traumatic nature’ of Ms Abbott’s death proves her assailant intended to kill the victim or cause her really serious harm.
Jurors were also shown messages from Ms Abbott to her nephew Feras Abu-Kait, outlining concerns about her sister.
She said: ‘I’ve been having a hard time. Nancy wrote a text saying she is gonna kill me, she said I should look behind me and be scared of the enemy, obviously the enemy is her.’
In another message, she added: ‘She could kill me and stab herself.
‘She’s always been jealous of me, all her life wanted what I have, I had cars, houses and designer clothes, and she spent all her life living on benefits.
‘So who do you think is jealous of who?’
Ms Abbott’s directoral credits include War of the Gods, a documentary about religion and power.
