Former soldier sought revenge on estranged wife by stabbing two sons to death, court told
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A former soldier stabbed his two young sons to death in a revenge attack against his wife who had left him days before, a court was told yesterday.
Birmingham Crown Court was told that Steven Wilson, 44, had attacked his sons, aged seven and eight, with a screwdriver and a weapon made from a beer mat and a blade after leaving in fury from a meeting with his wife.
The court was told that, after slashing and stabbing the children while parked on secluded land at a golf course, Mr Wilson had made a phonecall to his wife to tell her that he had killed his children and was about to kill himself.
David Crigman QC, for the prosecution, said that as police sent out a search helicopter, Mr Wilson made a series of 999 calls and for 30 minutes gave operators false locations to ensure the children could not be saved. Mr Wilson then stuck the screwdriver into his own chest as the police closed in, he told the court.
The helicopter tracked down Mr Wilson's four-wheel-drive vehicle 90 minutes after he made the first telephone call and found the boys dead and Mr Wilson with the screwdriver embedded in his chest. Mr Crigman said: "The venom against his wife was such that he wanted to teach her a lesson she would never forget."
On the first day of the trial yesterday, Mr Crigman said the attack on 6 February last year came four days after Mr Wilson's second wife, Denise, 26, left the marital home in Great Barr, Birmingham. On the night of the killings, they met at a McDonald's branch in West Bromwich to discuss the relationship. However, a series of telephone calls in the preceding days convinced Mr Wilson their nine-year marriage was over, Mr Crigman said.
Mr Wilson drove Denise to a tram stop with the two boys in the car and then allegedly hit her. Mr Crigman said she managed to get out of the car and pressed herself against some railings so Mr Wilson could not run her over. The defendant, who did not know where his wife was living, circled the area to find out where she was going. He then headed for the Hill Top golf course near Handsworth, Birmingham, with the boys still in the back of his car, the court was told.
There, Mr Wilson slashed the neck of his younger son, Bradley, with a blade, while his brother, Brett, was watching, the court was told. The attack was reportedly made with such force that the blade snapped. Mr Wilson then allegedlykilled Bradley with a screwdriver.
The court was told that Mr Wilson also used the screwdriver to stab Brett twice in the neck, which led to his death. Mr Crigman told the court that Mr Wilson had previously boasted to his wife about being a member of the SAS, and by saying he was trained to kill people – but Mr Wilson had served only 138 days in the Army 25 years ago, he said.
Mr Crigman said: "He was seething. He knew he could no longer control his wife. Apart from seething, he was wallowing in self pity. 999 calls will show us of the self-pity he was feeling and the anger he felt towards his wife.
"He then took what he saw as being the ultimate revenge by killing their two children. This was the most vicious way he could strike back at her because she had left him."
In one of the 999 calls made by the defendant, he claimed that the children wanted to die "because of the behaviour of their mother". Mr Wilson allegedly told the operator: "She wished she never had them and she don't want us no more.
"The children have told me they never want to see their mother again. We will all be in heaven together because I love them that much."
The court was also told that Bradley was probably the first to die and that Brett's injuries across his body indicated he had struggled for his life. Mr Wilson, who also has two children from his previous marriage, denies two charges of murder and one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The case, which is expected to last two weeks, continues.