Sister charged with murder in missing Rolex case

Jennifer Abbott was found at her home in Camden a week ago

A woman has appeared in court charged with murdering her 69-year-old sister who was discovered stabbed inside her north London home.

In a short hearing at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court, Nancy Pexton, also 69, spoke only to confirm her name and date of birth.

Jennifer Abbott, also known as Sarah Steinberg, was found dead at her flat in Camden last Friday. She was discovered by her niece and neighbours, who broke her door down after her family had not heard from her for several days.

A post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as sharp force trauma.

A Rolex watch with a diamond-encrusted face was missing from the victim’s address when her body was found

It is understood Ms Pexton is nine months younger than Ms Abbott.

Her neighbour said she regularly saw Ms Abbott walking her pet corgi in the area and described her as “mysterious, and very smart and intelligent”.

She added: “I can’t believe we won’t see her walking the corgi any more. She was very exuberant, very vivacious.

“She had done a lot of things in her life.

“She was a doctor but she was also an actor and director in America. She’d directed a movie and I looked at it on YouTube and saw her interviewed in Los Angeles,” she added.

“She was a character, she was lovely.”

Another woman living nearby described Ms Abbott as “a woman of taste” while William Currie, 63, a hairdresser, said she “used to walk the dog every couple of days. She kept herself to herself, she wasn’t too sociable but kind, polite and well-mannered”.

The corgi had been shut in the bathroom for three days before Ms Abbott was found, and survived.
The Metropolitan Police previously said officers were investigating whether Ms Abbott’s death was linked to a diamond-encrusted Rolex missing from her home.

At the hearing, Ms Pexton was remanded in custody and is due to appear at the Old Bailey on 24 June.