Rough sleeper’s a convicted killer
Howls of protest erupted as rail worker soaked him with soapy water. Now it emerges the...
THE video of a homeless man having soapy water poured around him by a railway worker provoked a wave of protest. Southern Rail apologised and suspended three staff, police said they were investigating a common assault, MPs called for the ‘vulnerable’ man to be helped, and internet users demanded sackings.
But yesterday it emerged that the homeless victim is a convicted killer with a long criminal record who boasts of having spent years in prison.
Video taken by an onlooker and shared online showed two railway workers arguing with the man outside Sutton railway station in Surrey on Sunday.
When he did not move, one railway worker poured a bucket of dirty soapy water around him as he sat on the pavement. A third man is said to have watched and failed to intervene. The water soaked the homeless man’s legs and lower back.
The homeless man is Toby Sawyer, 46, who was found guilty at the Old Bailey in 2000 of stabbing a friend to death amid horseplay during a drinking session.
Sawyer returned to Sutton station yesterday, where an ambulance and a police car turned up to help him. Two police officers, two paramedics, a homelessness charity worker and several well-wishers all pitched in. But he refused all assistance, including a council offer of a week’s free accommodation in a hostel.
On at least two occasions paramedics got Sawyer on to a wheeled stretcher and into a waiting ambulance. But both times he climbed out.
Sawyer was warned by police and paramedics that his life could be at risk if he slept on the streets, but he refused the hostel bed, saying: ‘Everyone’s got to die sometime. They’ll want to give me medication. I’m not ready for that.’
As he swigged from a can of strong cider outside the station at noon, Sawyer told the Daily Mail: ‘I done a murder – I’ve been in prison for 18 years. I got out in December.
‘I stabbed my friend. He hadn’t done anything to me before but he didn’t do anything again. I was good with a knife. F*** everyone. I don’t want any help.’
Several concerned members of the public stopped to try to help, but after eating a pizza bought for him he fell asleep in the early afternoon in the spot where he was soaked on Sunday.
Earlier, Sawyer said that before his conviction for killing Garry Moultrie ‘I smashed my house up’. Since then he had largely lost touch with his girlfriend and four children since. He claimed to have ten grandchildren. Sawyer added: ‘I never worked.’
He claimed he began selling cocaine aged 13 and with a few years was shifting three kilograms of the drug a week. Sawyer has three sisters and two brothers, but is rarely in touch unless it is to ask for money, family members said.
Last night a close relative, who asked not to be named, said alcoholism was Sawyer’s problem. He got worse after his widowed mother died ten years ago.
The relative said: ‘He’s been like this for years. He’s clean for one minute then he’s back the same.’
Sawyer was 27 and living in Carshalton, Surrey, when he was tried for murder following a boozing session at 38-year-old Mr Moultrie’s flat. The Old Bailey was told the trouble began when Sawyer pulled his trousers and underwear down and boasted about his genitalia.
He then started ‘picking on’ another man. Mr Moultrie first told him to stop, then used a brush to paint his face. Sawyer got a knife from the kitchen and stabbed Mr Moultrie. Sawyer was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter.
The court heard he had a long record for violence, including several assaults on police. Since being released from his jail sentence for manslaughter, Sawyer has continued to offend. Mr Moultrie’s sister Margaret Austen, 71, last night described Sawyer as ‘pure evil’.
‘I’m not surprised the real workers wanted to get rid of him because he is dangerous to other people,’ she told The Sun.
‘That man was only jailed for five years. It was devastating, not just to lose Gary but also because the man who killed him served so little time in jail.’
Last night Sawyer was still slumped outside the station while British Transport Police and Southern Rail investigated the staff who dealt with him.
‘I stabbed my friend... I was good with a knife’