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OWEN GRANT, 43, REPEATEDLY BLUDGEONED LUCRETIA DONAGHY TO DEATH IN NOVEMBER 2023. DAVE FINLAY 14:00, 29 May 2025Updated 17:07, 29 May 2025 A vicious killer who went on a spending spree after

savagely beating a woman to death in her own home was jailed for life today for the "horrible" murder. Owen Grant, 43, repeatedly bludgeoned Lucretia Donaghy, known as Keisha,

with a weapon such as a claw hammer in the fatal attack. A judge ordered that Grant must serve a minimum prison term of 24 years before he is eligible to seek release on parole because of

the "exceptionally brutal nature of the murder" and the killer's extensive record for violent crime. Lord Scott told Grant that he murdered "an unarmed and

defenceless" woman. The judge said: "The attack was exceptionally savage, frenzied and, as your own senior counsel said, brutal. The reasons for this brutal murder remain unknown,

but appear almost certainly to have been related to money." Lord Scott said that after the murder Grant embarked on a spending spree "frittering away" hundreds of pounds on

cocaine. The judge told him that when, if ever, he is released will be a matter for the parole board. He said that in a victim impact statement the deceased's mother said her heart was

broken following the loss of her only daughter. The victim died after sustaining multiple blunt force head injuries and was found lying face down in a bedroom at her address. A neighbour had

heard sounds of an argument coming from the downstairs flat and the victim calling out: "No, no, no." A passport in the name of Owen Grant was found in the property and he left

his hand print in the victim's blood on a bedroom wall at her home in Elgin, in Moray, and was caught on camera with a wad of money after the killing. He claimed that the blood got on

him after he earlier tattooed the victim's right wrist with the name of her daughter. Grant, of Sandstone Avenue, Elgin, denied murdering the 32-year-old and claimed: "I never laid

a finger on her." He told the High Court in Edinburgh that the killing was "disgusting" and "horrible" and he was devastated by the death. But a jury found him

guilty of assaulting Ms Donaghy by repeatedly striking her on the head and body with an unknown object and murdering her on November 15 in 2023 at 79 Anderson Drive, in Elgin, by a majority

verdict on the third day of deliberations by jurors. Grant, a former labourer, who has previous convictions for violence and was sentenced to eight years detention in 2003 for arson to

danger of life at Warrington Crown Court, told the court he owed the victim pounds 300 for cocaine and he said he was planning to pay her. He agreed that he knew pounds 770 was counted out

at her home prior to the murder, but denied that he took the money. He denied that he was facing "a financial crisis" and claimed that he could pay the debt he incurred. He said he

went to her address on November 15 in 2023 intending "to pay my bill" but got no answer when he knocked on the door. He told the court: "I was at Keisha's but I

didn't go in." Advocate depute Christopher Wilson KC said that at the time of the murder Grant had just over pounds 12 in a bank account and did not pay his rent that week. The

prosecutor told jurors: "My suggestion to you is the accused had run out of money. A drug habit and a lack of money is a bad combination." He said to the jury: "No one saw

Owen Grant wield the hammer. The hammer itself has never been recovered, if you accept it was a hammer." Grant was seen on CCTV putting a bag in a refuse bin after the killing and

buying cigarettes and drinks at a Scotmid store with a large amount of cash in his wallet. No money was recovered when police searched Ms Donaghy's home following the murder and no

murder weapon was found. Article continues below After the murder Grant turned up drunk at a woman's address and gave her pounds 200 to source cocaine. She returned to the house and

told him she had learned that Keisha was dead. Grant cried but went on to claim the information was wrong and that police activity at her home was a drugs raid. The woman said that Grant

gave her more money over a weekend to score more drugs and gave cash to her children. He was planning a trip to Inverness and had "a shopping list", she said.