Killer of mother and two children jailed for 38 years

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

A man has been ordered to serve at least 38 years in prison for bludgeoning to death a woman and her two children with a hammer.

Pierre Williams, 33, of Selly Oak, Birmingham, was given three life sentences for killing his ex-girlfriend Beverley Samuels, 36, her daughter, Kesha Wizzart, 18, and her son, Fred Wizzart, 13, at their home in Manchester on 12 July last year. The family were beaten to death with a 2lb engineer's hammer. Mrs Samuels and Ms Wizzart – a former contestant inITV's Young Stars In Their Eyes programme – were sexually assaulted.

The judge, Mr Justice Christopher Pitchford, said: "Williams is a man with a low threshold for sexual frustration. Just as he had in the past with a previous girlfriend, he took out his frustration by treating Beverley and her daughter with gross sexual aggression. Only he can know what terror and pain he inflicted upon them before they died."

Williams was found guilty at Manchester Crown Court of three counts of murder after the jury deliberated for three hours and 15 minutes. He was also found guilty of two sexual assaults. He had a history of sexual violence against women.

The judge would not allow Williams back into the dock to hear his sentence after an earlier outburst. Williams had to be restrained by guards when the first guilty verdict was read out.

Mr Justice Pitchford told the packed courtroom that the defendant had been taken to Manchester prison. He added: "Beverley Samuels was an impressive young woman; she was making her way in the world and caring, with their father, for her young family. She was a woman with high personal standards and I have no doubt it was those standards which resulted in the slaughter by Pierre Williams of all three of them with a hammer.

"In the course of giving evidence, Pierre Williams volunteered to the jury that the person who did this was an animal. The calm effrontery with which he volunteered that assessment demonstrates to me he harboured no remorse for what he had done and his purpose ever since has been to escape his just punishment if he could. Thankfully, there was an abundance of evidence upon which the jury convicted him."

The judge described the victims as "popular and beloved" as their family wept openly in the public gallery. "That family and those friends have my deepest sympathy," he added. "I'm in no doubt Pierre Williams is, by reason of his present tendency towards serious sexual violence, a very dangerous man."