A ‘SELFISH’ grandson who murdered his grandmother in a brutal attack at her home has been jailed for life.

Cameron Dancey-Stevenson, who was living rough at the time and is now a patient at Langdon Hospital in Dawlish, was jailed at Exeter Crown Court after Judge Simon Carr heard a moving victim impact statement written on behalf of his entire remaining family which told of the continuing horror and upset.

The statement was written by Marina Stevenson, the killer’s aunt and a daughter of 62-year-old Alison Stevenson, who was stabbed to death at her home in Helston in the early hours of May 25, 2021.

She told of Alison Stevenson’s love for her grandson and her failed attempts to help him, which he scorned and rewarded only with threats and violence, leading up to the fatal attack.

Marina Stevenson said the family had been shocked ‘to the core’ by the brutality of the attack and told they would never forgive Dancey-Stevenson .

She said: 'Alison’s life was taken by a brutal attack which was made even more despicable it was committed by the grandson who she loved dearly. She did all she could for you, Cameron.

'You only cared about yourself and what you could get out of it. Alison must have been terribly scared in the last moments of her life. You are no longer her grandson, you are her murderer.'

'Your mother Clare cannot comprehend how the child she brought into this world and who was loved and supported throughout his life has committed this horrendous action.

'That pain will go with her to her grave.

'As a family, we will never forgive your actions. You are a selfish man who always knew what you were doing.'

Dancey-Stevenson posted a series of threats on his Facebook page and posed in a balaclava mask which he wore when he broke into retired care home owner Alison’s home in Greenbank, Helston, in the early hours.

He took a knife from the kitchen and used it to inflict horrific injuries on Alison’s neck as she lay helpless in bed.

'He then spent three hours using her washing machine to clean the evidence off his clothes.'

The murder trial was one of the first to feature expert evidence obtained from her electricity smart meter which showed a spike in usage between 2.30am and 5.30am which matched the use of the appliances to clean and dry his clothes.

He carried out the attack in revenge for her having called the police when he broke a restraining order by going to her home the previous month. He was due to be sentenced later that day and blamed her for putting him at risk of going back to jail.

Stevenson, aged 27, who was living rough at the time and is now a patient at Langdon Hospital in Dawlish, was found guilty of murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 18 years by Judge Simon Carr at Exeter Crown Court.

The sentence means that Dancey-Stevenson will remain at Langdon, where he is being treated for schizophrenia until he is well enough to serve the rest of his sentence in prison.

The Judge told him: 'It is clear you were angry with your grandmother and blamed her for your predicament and the risk of a further prison sentence. You saw her as the cause of your problems. Nothing could be further from the truth.

'You took a knife from the kitchen and went upstairs. Whether you started the attack when she was asleep or after a verbal exchange, we will never know. The attack was truly brutal. The photographs of her injuries are harrowing.

'After killing her, you remained in the house, washing your clothes and trying to remove all the forensic evidence. You utterly denied being there before inventing a fictitious man who you said carried out the killing.'

Miss Anna Vigars, KC, defending, said Dancey-Stevenson was suffering from schizophrenia at the time but it was undiagnosed and untreated. His illness left him unable to appreciate his grandmother’s kindness or respond appropriately.

During a two week trial, the jury heard how Dancey-Stevenson stabbed her so many times in the neck and throat that a pathologist was unable to count the wounds, some of which went right through her neck and partially severed her spine.

He left her dead in a pool of her own blood and went downstairs to use her washing machine and tumble drier to clean his blood-soaked clothes.

He left a trail of forensic evidence which proved that he was the killer, including a bloody footprint at the entrance to her bedroom. Her blood and his DNA were also found on the door of her washing machine, which he used just after the killing.

Her blood was found under one of his fingernails after he was arrested several hours after the killing. Defence wounds on her hands and arms showed that she tried to fight him off before suffering the horrific injuries which led to her dying from loss of blood.

Retired care home owner Mrs Stevenson spent years trying to help her grandson after he developed mental illness and let him use her house during the Covid lockdowns of 2020 and early 2021 because he was homeless and living in a tent.

Their relationship broke down because of his irrational and violent behaviour and by April 2021 she had banned him from her home and obtained a court order to keep him away from her.

Dancey-Stevenson gave a garbled account to the jury at Exeter Crown Court of hearing a mystery intruder arguing with his grandmother as he passed her window on the night of the murder.

He claimed to have gone into her house to protect her and said he picked up the knife as he went through the kitchen but was then disarmed by the other man, who then used it to kill Mrs Stevenson as he cowered in a neighbouring bedroom.