Mum killer was Strangeways riot ringleader
MAN JAILED FOR LIFE FOR WOMAN’S MURDER PLAYED KEY ROLE IN NOTORIOUS 1990 JAIL PROTEST
THE killer of tragic mum Sian Roberts was one of the ringleaders of the Strangeways riots, the M.E.N can reveal.
Glynn Williams, 53, also known as Glyn Williams and Glen Williams, was last week jailed for life for murdering mother-of-one Sian at her home at St Helier’s Drive, Higher Broughton, Salford.
Back in 1990 Williams was notorious for entirely different reasons. Williams, then in his 20s, was a key figure in the longest prison riot in British history.
The month of disruption started as a protest against poor conditions at Strangeways, and led to the authorities losing control of Manchester’s Victorian prison compound.
Even after hundreds of prisoners surrendered following the first couple of days of disorder, a hardcore of rioters continued to stage a rooftop protest at the Southall Street jail.
Williams was among the last five rioters to be brought down from the roof, bringing to an end a 25-day siege. He was later jailed for 10 years for his part in the riot. And, in the years following his release, he was in and out of prison for burglaries committed to feed his heroin addiction.
Then, in November 2015, he committed an act of shocking violence, stabbing Sian to death in a case which even the lead prosecutor described as ‘something of a whodunnit.’
Sian, 36, was a hairdresser who had grown up in Cheetham Hill. Bad relationships and family bereavements had led to her using heroin, and she knew Williams as a fixture in the local drug scene.
Williams denied Sian’s murder in a Manchester Crown Court trial which ended last week, although he did not give evidence.
Through his barrister, throughout the hearing he accused an innocent man, Sian’s former boyfriend Joel Gordon, of having killed her.
Mr Gordon was the perfect foil. He had served life for the 1997 knife murder of teenager Craig Pearse in Crumpsall and reported finding Sian’s body to police on November 29.
When officers got to the address they found a confusing scene. Handcuffs and a sex toy lay by Sian’s body and a knife was lying across her left palm.
The killer had clearly attempted to throw investigators off the scent. But there were a number of clues that pointed to Williams being the real killer – including two full English breakfasts.
CCTV revealed that on the morning Sian was last seen – November 28 – she bought two breakfasts from the Godfather cafe in Cheetham Hill before going back to St Helier’s Drive with Williams at around 10am.
These meals were recovered from the house after her death – and the one containing black pudding could be linked by DNA on a fork to Williams.
Both breakfasts had barely been touched, suggesting Sian had been killed soon after returning to the prop- erty. Her lack of phone and TV usage after she was with Williams, and the fact his bootprints were in her blood at the scene, all suggested he had been the last person to see her alive.
Jurors were told Sian may have been killed after confronting Williams for stealing jewellery from her.
However, at the time of the killing, Williams had just been awarded a compensation payout and had been buying drugs for female friends. Meanwhile witness Deana Dyce, who was a lifelong friend of Sian and Williams, told his trial that while there was ‘nothing sexual going on’ between them, Williams had been ‘madly in love’ with Sian.
In a further tragic twist, Sian was the second woman to die at the property at St Helier’s Drive within 18 months. In July 2014, Jacqueline Jordan, 49, was found dead in the back garden following drug use.
Speaking after Williams was jailed for life, with a minimum of 21 years to serve before parole can be considered, senior investigating officer Supt Bob Tonge said: “This was such a tragedy. Glynn Williams tried everything to get out of admitting his crimes and his story changed more than once throughout our investigation. I’m glad we’ve finally got Sian’s family the justice they deserve.”