A woman who battered her mother to death and convinced her boyfriend to dump the body in a stream was sentenced yesterday to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years for her “abhorrent” crime.

Lisa Brown, 22, attacked Anne Brown, 51, with a torch in her home in Ayrshire last year amid a bitter dispute with her parent over the care of a child. After the attack her boyfriend John Wilson, 25, helped her load the body into the victim’s car and dump the weighted corpse into a nearby burn.

Brown was convicted of murder last month after a six-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow while Wilson was found guilty of culpable homicide. Yesterday he was jailed for 12 years for his part in Mrs Brown's death.

Passing sentence on Brown, Lord Matthews told her: “All of the evidence makes it obvious that there was a great deal of pre-meditation in what you did and the fact that your own mother was your victim is something which most people will find abhorrent.”

The court heard how Brown, a failed archaeology student, had a turbulent relationship with her mother that would “stretch and stretch like elastic”.

Mrs Brown had started legal proceedings to gain custody of a child, which her daughter disputed. When Lisa Brown heard the child was to stay with her mother she hatched a plot with Wilson to kill Mrs Brown and take the child.

On the evening of October 18 the pair took a train from their Glasgow flat to Mrs Brown’s home in Burnhouse, Ayrshire, where they subjected her to what was described by prosecutors as “a night time surprise assault” in the grounds of the property. The brutal attack left Mrs Brown with 49 injuries to her face and neck.

The court heard evidence that Mrs Brown was still alive when she was bound, covered, and placed in the boot of her Ford Focus before being dumped in the burn. The remains were found by search teams six days later after Anne Brown’s mother alerted police to her disappearance.

During the investigation detectives uncovered a message written by Brown on the Bebo social networking site months before which said: “Well let’s just say that if me and my mum meet again, one of us won't be leaving alive.”

Gary Allan, QC, for the prosecution, said this was a “foretelling of an event” that happened.

Mrs Brown's blood was later found on clothing seized from Brown and Wilson's flat. The jury was told that it was more than a billion to one that it belonged to someone else.

Brown and Wilson initially stuck to a pact that Mrs Brown had not been home that night. During the trial, however, they blamed each and Wilson, who gave evidence against his former girlfriend, said that she alone had committed the murder.

Sentencing was postponed last week after doctors said Brown was suffering from Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism.

Lord Matthews ordered a further medical report after her defence counsel, Frances McMenamin QC, said that the condition explained why Brown appeared to show “no signs of upset or regret”.

Fergus Douds, a consultant psychiatrist who assessed Brown said: “Someone with Asperger’s syndrome could still plan an act but, because of deficiencies in their social imagination, might be unable to see what the consequences of those actions might be.”

Speaking after the sentencing, Geri Watt, the area procurator fiscal for Ayrshire, said: “It was very important that the perpetrators of this horrific killing were brought to justice. The life sentence imposed on Lisa Brown reflects the seriousness of her crimes. I hope that those close to Anne Brown, who were most affected by this terrible crime, are now able to rebuild their lives.”

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