Detective still baffled over motive for killing
DAVID WILSON MURDER
No one may ever know why Daniel Johnson slaughtered David Wilson as he lay defenceless in bed, says the detective who led the investigation.
Det Supt Mark Ord said Johnson’s refusal to co-operate in interviews or give evidence in his own defence meant police were still baffled by his reasons for launching an unprovoked and savage attack.
“It is difficult to understand categorically because Daniel has refused to talk to police through his numerous interviews and has refused to give evidence in his own trial,” he said.
“So we will never know Daniel’s view of why he did what he died.
“What we can logically draw from the evidence is that Daniel robbed David Wilson’s partner and he robbed him for financial reasons, having taken him to the cashpoint machine.
“You can draw logically from that, that in seizing the keys and then going back to the flat, that is likely to have been for a financial reason.
“That does not, in any way, answer the question as to why he then went on to kill David.
“Because we know, from all the evidence we gathered within the crime scene and evidence that has been heard in the court, that David Wilson was likely to be asleep in bed, under his duvet,and for reasons only known to Daniel, Daniel has straddled David, pinning him down through his duvet, pinning him to the bed, and stabbing him through the duvet with a knife taken from Mr Wilson’s own kitchen.
“We know he had not been disturbed, there had not been any conflict in that room, we know from the crime scene that David Wilson has barely moved when he was subject to that attack.
“He has fought for his life but he has barely moved. He has not sat up in bed and disturbed Daniel, he has been laid flat in bed and pinned to the bed through the quilt.”
The hunt for David Wilson’s murder focussed on three key areas of investigation, Det Supt Ord explained.
“David Wilson was found brutally murdered on December 14 in 2014. He had been murdered as he most likely lay asleep in bed in his flat
“The initial investigation revealed, in effect, three key lines of inquiry, three clues left behind by the killer of David Wilson.
“Those clues were, firstly, that the killer must have had access to a set of keys, because we know that when police arrived the door of David Wilson’s flat had been locked and crime scene investigation showed there had been a blood stain – that we could show was David Wilson’s blood – left on the handle of that door.
“The second clue was that David Wilson’s partner, just after 4am that morning, had been subject of a robbery at the post office in Southwick, Sunderland, and that, during that robbery, the offender in that case had stolen David’s keys to the flat.
“And then the third clue was, bizarrely, that the killer had rung police at 4.41 on the morning of David’s murder, he had rung police on David’s phone and he had rung asking police to take him home.
“He told us he had been to a house party in Town End Farm and that he had previously lived in Hylton Castle but that he now lived in the Gateshead area and he asked police take him home, a request that we refused.
“So those three lines of inquiry are predominantly what caused this investigation to be as complex as it was.”