LIFE TERM FOR ‘MOTIVELESS’ MURDER
A PENSIONER was brutally beaten to death in his own garden in a seemingly random, motiveless attack, a court has heard.
Kyle Bowen subjected 73-year-old David Williams to a savage and sustained assault after knocking on the door of his Neath Valley house.
The 29-year-old then walked away – leaving the victim’s wife to find her dying husband lying in the rain.
Bowen was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 16 years when he appeared at Swansea Crown Court – though a judge warned him that he may never be released.
The court heard that Mr Williams was attacked after answering a knock at the door of his Glynneath house on the afternoon of January 27 this year.
John Hipkin QC, for the prosecution, said Bowen subjected the pensioner to a “brutal attack” which left the victim with extensive injuries to his head, face, neck, and chest.
When her husband did not return from answering the knock Mr Williams’s wife, Pearl, went to look for him – and found him lying on the gravel outside the conservatory.
Emergency services were called to the secluded Danygraig house but despite the best efforts of paramedics Mr Williiams – who was known as Dai Doberman for his love of the dog breed – never regained consciousness, and died of his injuries.
Bowen was arrested later the same day at his home in Glynneath.
The court heard he was already on the police’s “radar” that afternoon after workmen on a job near the victim’s home had seen Bowen wandering around and looking “worse for wear”, and had raised concerns.
The prosecutor said Mr Williams’s blood was found on Bowen’s trousers, and his DNA on his shoes, while Bowen’s DNA was recovered from under the victim’s fingernails.
Tests showed there was alcohol and an antipsychotic drug in Bowen’s system.
Mr Hipkin said the defendant gave three “no comment” interviews to police before submitting a prepared statement in which he said he had mental health problems, and had gone to the Danygraig viaduct in order to take his own life.
Bowen, of Mill Terrace, Glynneath, had previously pleaded guilty to murder when he appeared in the dock for sentencing via videolink from Swansea prison.
In a statement read to court, Mrs Williams said Bowen turned her world “upside down and inside out”, and she said he would never understand the hurt and pain he had caused.
She said she was tormented by the question of why her husband had been attacked, and felt guilty that she had not been the one to answer the door that day, and guilty that she had not been able to help her partner. She added: “You destroyed the world I knew and the man I loved in a heartbeat.”
The court heard the couple would have celebrated their golden wedding anniversary next year.
Christopher Clee QC, for Bowen, said despite repeated requests from his legal team and a psychiatrist, the defendant had been unable to say why he had confronted Mr Williams on the day in question.
The barrister said: “We can put no reason forward for this senseless killing.”
Judge Paul Thomas QC told Bowen he had inflicted an “horrific catalogue” of injuries on his victim in a “gratuitous and sustained attack”, an attack which he had continued long after it must have been obvious to him that the pensioner was seriously hurt. He said: “Having done that to him, a man of 73, you left him dying for his wife to find. One minute she was on the phone; the next she found her beloved husband dying in the garden.”
The judge said given the “seemingly random and motiveless nature of the attack”, he believed the defendant would pose a risk to the public for “many years to come”.
Bowen was sentenced to life in prison, and was told he must serve a minimum of 16 years before he can apply for parole – but he will only be released if the authorities consider he is no longer a danger.
Judge Thomas said the effect of the sentence was that Bowen would not be released until 2035 at the earliest but “it may be a lot longer than that – if ever”.