Mother and son death: Homeless man is charged

A FAMILY subjected to a brutal knife attack in their home had been looking after a local down-and-out.

Tracey Wilkinson, 50, was found dead at the gated property on Thursday morning, while 13-year-old Pierce died shortly after in hospital.

His father Peter, 47, was last night in a ‘critical but stable’ condition.

All three were said to have suffered multiple stab wounds at the £440,000 home.

The Wilkinsons’ daughter Lydia, 18, was away at university at the time and was yesterday keeping a vigil at her father’s bedside.

A homeless man has been charged with the murder of the mother and her son.

Yesterday friends of the family from Stourbridge, Worcestershire, told how the ‘good Samaritan’ couple had been looking after a beggar for

‘Wanted to give something back’

around a year, after meeting him when he was out on the streets.

Mr Wilkinson is thought to have found the unidentified man work at his engineering firm, while the couple helped him with clothes and food to get him ‘back on his feet’.

A close friend of Mrs Wilkinson fought back tears as she described how the respected family’s generosity even extended to setting up the individual in a flat.

She added: ‘Tracey said she just wanted to give something back. That was the warm, compassionate person she was. Pierce was a lovely, wellmannered boy. If the family went out for a meal, he would pull the chair out for his mum.’

Aaron Barley, 23, of no fixed abode, will appear before Birmingham magistrates this morning charged with two counts of murder and one of attempted murder.