Teenagers who tried to decapitate factory worker with samurai sword jailed for murder
Robert Wilson’s widow confronts killers in court over ‘incomprehensible’ slaying
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The wife of a factory supervisor hacked to death by two teenagers who tried to decapitate him with a samurai sword has confronted his killers in court as they were jailed for life.
Elaine Wilson told Kiyran Earnshaw, 18, and Luke Gaukroger, 16, before they were sentenced for Robert Wilson’s murder: “I want you to know you have taken the life of a much respected, admired and good man.”
Mr Wilson, 53, was attacked by the teenagers as he and two colleagues investigated youths hanging around outside the Thornton and Ross pharmaceutical plant in Huddersfield.
CCTV footage played in Leeds Crown Court on Wednesday showed Earnshaw and Gaukroger passing a 20-inch sword between them as they killed him on 16 January.
Audio recorded from Mr Wilson’s phone call to a security firm captured Gaukroger, who was 15 at the time, shouting “get his head, I want to cut his head, Kia I want to cut his head”.
The recording, also played in court, also documented the night shift supervisor’s pleas to the youths to stop their attack.
The court heard Mr Wilson had two grown-up stepchildren and enjoyed gardening, golf and walking in the Yorkshire Dales.
His wife Elaine told the court his death was “completely incomprehensible”, adding: “How on earth have we come to this and why?”
She said she had been sickened to receive a letter from one of her husband’s killers describing the night of the attack as the “worst night of my life” and telling her “I’m sorry”’.
Ms Wilson told the sentencing hearing she had been shocked to “feel so much hate”.
The court heard that Mr Wilson had left the plant with colleagues Paul Thewliss and John Badejo to ask the youths to leave its car park.
Prosecutor Peter Makepeace said there was “no suggestion” the factory workers had been “anything other than polite and decent in their dealings with the youths once they met up in the car park”.
After the older teenager began raining blows on Mr Wilson, Gaukroger was heard repeatedly shouting: “Pass me the shank, pass me the shank.”
After multiple further blows and kicks to the victim, Earnshaw passed the sword to the 16-year-old, who can be identified despite his age after judge Nicholas Lavender lifted reporting restrictions following a submission by the PA Media news agency.
Mr Makepeace said the two attackers had paused at one point to catch their breath and to rifle through Mr Wilson’s pockets, taking his coat.
After resuming the attack “Earnshaw and Gaukroger together holding the sword and crouching to the upper body then seem to make a concerted effort to saw the head from the shoulders,” the prosecutor said.
“Both then jointly stab the upper body using their combined force,” he added.
Police who arrived at the scene reported seeing one of the pair “using the sword in sawing motion to the neck area of the deceased as if trying to detach the head from the body”.
Police Tasered Earnshaw twice before arresting him and used an incapacitant spray to detain Gaukroger.
Both defendants admitted murdering Mr Wilson and Earnshaw admitted causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Badejo, who was seriously injured as he tried to help his colleague before he and Mr Thewliss fled for their lives.
Mr Lavender jailed Earnshaw, of Field Lane, Batley, to life in prison with a minimum term of 22 years and Gaukroger, of Arthur Street, Huddersfield, to life with a minimum of 16 years and eight months.
The two teenagers were seen taking tablets “washed down with vodka and other alcohol” as they hung around Huddersfield with friends before the attack, Mr Makepeace said.
After his arrest, Earnshaw was slurring his speech as he asked why he had been arrested and complained of police harassment.
He told officers he had taken cocaine and the tranquilliser Xanax.
Tests on drugs Earnshaw had in his possession found they were Flualprazolam – an artificial substance similar to Xanax which produces drowsiness, confusion and disinhibition.
Sentencing the teenagers, the judge said: “As he lay dying, you used the sword in repeated attempts to cut off his head.
“You ended his life and you brought lifelong misery and grief to his wife, his two stepchildren and his other family and friends.”
He added said: “This frenzied and senseless attack on a man who was quite unable to defend himself went on for about 10 minutes.
“I have watched the recording and it is a truly gruesome sight, made all the more ghastly by the fact that your blows and words, including your abuse of this dying man, and his attempts to speak, were being recorded, because he had begun a telephone call to the firm’s security company.”
The judge noted that both teenagers had a history of violent offences.
He said this included an incident in October 2016 when Earnshaw used a knife to stab a fellow pupil at his school twice in the stomach.
Additional reporting by Press Association