Relations with the in-laws are often a sticking point in any family.

Many daughter-in-laws would be quick to admit they don't get on with their partner's mother. 

Yet few would be sick enough to consider murder to be a solution to any such dispute.

This month, a daughter-in-law in Brazil was arrested on suspicion of three murders and three additional attempted murders after a Christmas cake with traces of arsenic poisoned members of her family, including her mother-in-law.

Now, MailOnline has investigated the gruesome mother-in-law killings that have rocked Britain. 

From a woman who beat her mother-in-law to death with a rolling pin to another who stabbed her 16 times with a kitchen knife, these are the sickening crimes daughter-in-laws have inflicted on their in-laws...

Bludgeoned mother-in-law to death with rolling pin

Rajvinder Kaur, 37, inflicted multiple head, neck and body injuries on her mother-in-law Baljit Kaur Buttar in a sustained attack in the family's bathroom with a rolling pin.

She then called an ambulance claiming her mother-in-law had suffered a heart attack.

Paramedics were called to the flat in Southampton, on February 25 last year to find 56-year-old Mrs Buttar, known as Bibi, dead in the bath.

The jury at Winchester Crown Court was shown a video of the scene which showed the bathroom floor covered in blood.

Mrs Kaur has admitted killing her mother in law but denies murder as she claims her mother-in-law's behaviour towards her provoked her into losing her self-control.

Mrs Buttar had been staying with the family for six months and according to Rajvinder Kaur she would call her names, threaten her and be unkind to her.

The court was told that Kaur's two sons, aged nine and 18 months were at home at the time of the killing.

A previous trial, at which Mrs Kaur denied having anything to do with the death, was halted earlier this year when she admitted the killing.

At one point she said her mother-in-law had a bath and was putting some oil on when she must have slipped and sustained the injuries, the court was told.

Prosecutor Bill Mousley QC said when a paramedic arrived there was shouting between Mrs Kaur and her husband, Iqbal Singh and Mrs Kaur was washing her mother-in-law's body with a handheld shower in the bath.

Mr Singh and the paramedic lifted Mrs Buttar out of the bath and into the kitchen while Kaur watched.

Resuscitation attempts were unsuccessful.

Mr Mousley said: 'She claims that she is not guilty of murder but only of manslaughter because she was provoked into losing her self-control by Baljit Buttar's general and specific conduct towards her.

'She claims she was unkind to her and would call her names.

'She claims that in the bathroom her mother-in-law was threatening to her.

'Alternatively at the time of the attack it is said she was in an abnormal mental state which may limit her responsibility for the death.'

Mrs Buttar had been staying with the family since August 2010 and had been due to return to India on February 27 - just two days after she had died.

Mr Mousley told the court: 'It is clear that she was very angry when she attacked and killed her mother-in-law but her behaviour was not triggered by any fear of being seriously harmed or wronged.

'Whatever the reason for her deadly violence, it was not a justifiable one.

'Any explanation which the defendant may now seek to advance should be viewed with, at the very least, considerable scepticism considering her persistent attempts to mislead the police and the court on a previous occasion, as well as her own psychiatrist.

'Faced with the evidence against her, this late change of tack is just another dishonest effort at limiting the damage.'

Kaur, 37, was sentenced to life imprisonment and told she would serve a minimum term of 11 years for battering her mother-in-law Baljit Kaur Buttar to death with a rolling pin at her home in Southampton last February. 

Set fire to mother-in-law's bed as she slept 

'Wicked' Karen Vamplew, 44, started a blaze at the home of her mother-in-law Elizabeth Vamplew, 77, by setting her bed alight as she slept.

The frail pensioner died from burns and smoke inhalation after the blaze tore through her bungalow on Eton Court, in Newark, Nottinghamshire, on December 15, 2021.

A court heard her daughter-in-law, also known as Karen Degg, carried out the murder in a bid to cash in on inheritance money as she was in considerable debt.

She had kept her money problems secret from her husband and mother-in-law and claimed to police the fire was accidentally started by a lit cigarette.

However, evidence shown to the jury proved only a directly applied naked flame to the bottom of the bed could have started the inferno.

Vamplew's movements before the fire also provided further damning evidence - detailing suspicious movements to and from the address caught on CCTV.

Jurors heard Vamplew had also been using her mother-in-law's bank account to fund her lifestyle and pocketed almost £27,000 from it.

Just £110 remained in the account the day before she decided to set fire on the victim's home, by which point Elizabeth's bank had capped transactions at a maximum of £5 a time.

In an apparent bid to get the limit removed, Vamplew accompanied her mother-in-law to the bank. 

A jury found her guilty of murder following a trial at Leicester Crown Court.

Vamplew was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum term of 32 years.

Judge Timothy Spencer KC said her actions had been 'wicked and terrible' and Elizabeth would have woken to find a scene of 'hell' in her bedroom.

The court was told Elizabeth, known to her family as Anna, was in poor health as she was deaf and had undergone seven hip operations.

The judge said Vamplew considered her mother-in-law 'a burden' and had killed her for financial gain.

Thanking the jury for their service after the verdicts, Judge Spencer told them the case had been 'one of the most distressing it is possible to imagine.'

Paying tribute after the case, her heartbroken family members said in a statement: 'Anne was a devoted mother, sister, grandmother, aunt, and friend to many.

'She married her husband Jess in 1968 and embarked on their journey together in Collingham.

'Their family grew with the arrival of Mark, and later, they moved to Newark, where Rachel completed their loving family circle.

'Together, they created cherished memories travelling in their caravan, often accompanied by Anne's sister Jean and their families.

'Anne and Jess found solace and joy in tending to their beloved garden, earning recognition with an award for Best Kept Garden.

'Christmas held a special place in Anne's heart, as it meant being surrounded by her beloved family, the true source of her happiness.

'Anne was happiest when time was spent with her three granddaughters - Leah, Jessie and Isla. She was immensely proud of them all.

'Anne loved her holidays and adored cruising. She would cruise at least twice a year with family and friends.

'She made many friends on these holidays as she loved to chat and get to know people.

'She will be greatly missed by her family and many friends.'

Following the case, Nottinghamshire Police described the 'brutal' murder as a 'premeditated act borne out of wickedness and greed'.

Detective Chief Inspector Clare Dean, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: 'This is a very sad and tragic case and I am pleased the jury saw through Karen Vamplew's lies and found her guilty of murder after careful deliberation.

'The simple fact is that she deliberately set a catastrophic and fatal fire knowing full well that Elizabeth was asleep inside the property.

'It was a brutal and premeditated act borne out of wickedness and greed.

'Today's sentence brings to an end a long legal ordeal for Elizabeth's family, but I am acutely aware that it will never ease the pain they feel every day at this terrible loss.

'I would like to thank each of them for the enormous courage and dignity they have shown in unimaginably difficult circumstances.'

Killed mother-in-law, sister-in-law and nephew by stabbing them with a kitchen knife 73 times  

A young mother who stabbed three of her relatives to death with a kitchen knife avoided jail in 1994.

A jury at Northampton Crown Court cleared Kulwinder Kaur Bahia, 23, of murdering her mother-in-law, sister-in-law and nephew in November 1992. 

Although it was accepted that she killed her mother-in-law Gurmej Kaur Bahia, 60, her sister-in-law Surinder Kaur Dhandwar, 28, and nephew Avtar Singh Dhandwar, four, she avoided jail.

She was found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and that she had also attempted to murder a four-month-old baby by swinging it against a wall and fracturing its skull.

Bahia killed her relatives three years after marrying into the family through an arranged marriage when she was 18.

She had come to Britain when she was just five after living in India. 

Her mother-in-law was stabbed 16 times, her sister-in-law 46 times and her four-year-old nephew 11 times, before the house was drenched in petrol and set on fire.

Bahia, who had two daughters and lived close to her in-laws in Smethwick, West Midlands, claimed she was poorly treated by her husband and mother-in-law.

On November 7, she went to her sister-in-law's house and stabbed her and her son to death.

The court heard went home to change her bloody clothes before killing her mother-in-law, putting her body in a large plastic bag and pulling it inside her sister-in-law's house and starting a blaze.

She was detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act.