I can’t forgive you, teenager tells killer her family took in
19-year-old whose mother and brother were slain by addict they had helped stands up to him in court
A YOUNG woman whose mother and brother were killed in their own home by a homeless drug addict they had taken under their wing confronted him in court, telling him he had “obliterated” her life.
Lydia Wilkinson, 19, locked eyes with Aaron Barley as she said: “I will never forgive you”. Barley, 23, stabbed Tracey Wilkinson and her 13-year-old son, Pierce, to death and left husband, Peter, critically injured after they helped him get onto his feet by giving him a job, feeding him and letting him stay at their home.
Hours later, he laughed about the murders and told a policewoman: “I chopped them up – I don’t need a solicitor.”
Miss Wilkinson forced Barley to meet her gaze as she bravely read her own victim personal statement from the witness box at Birmingham Crown Court.
He gave no reaction as she told him: “My parents helped you – you repaid them with destruction, and heartache.
“You have obliterated my life, murdered half my family, very nearly all of it, and for this I will never forgive you.”
Miss Wilkinson earlier described how she had been left “haunted to my core”, having had to identify her little brother and her mother.
“I am a shell of my former self,” she said. “Sometimes I wake up and don’t want to be here. I am left wondering why, for life – what did they do to deserve this?”
Mrs Wilkinson, 50, who was described as a “compassionate woman” determined to help others, took pity on Barley after finding him shivering outside a Tesco supermarket last March.
She helped him get a place in a hostel and fed him regularly at the £400,000 family home in Stourbridge. Her husband gave him a job at his manufactur- ing firm and the family invited him to enjoy Christmas lunch with them last year. But in March this year, Barley – an orphan who had a long history of violence – turned up at the family home and, after letting himself in, stabbed Mrs Wilkinson and her son to death.
When Mr Wilkinson, who had been out walking the dog, returned he was stabbed six times in the face, neck, abdomen and back.
Barley, who was flanked by four security guards, stood emotionless with shoulders slumped as he admitted two counts of murder. He had already pleaded guilty to attempting to murder Mr Wilkinson.
He was described in court as a “compulsive liar” and a “Jekyll and Hyde” character who had boasted of wanting to spend the rest of his life behind bars as a notorious murderer.
Last night Mr Wilkinson said he and his daughter would never forgive Barley for tearing their family apart.
He said: “There’s no motive, there is no explanation... I wish my wife had never set eyes on him.”
Mr Wilkinson described how his wife had decided to help Barley after seeing him begging in a cardboard box, helping him to get a bed in a hostel, and organising meals for him every day.
Mr Wilkinson said Barley told him: “I just need somebody to give me a chance, I need somebody to give me a lucky break.” Three weeks later the
‘I am a shell of my former self. Sometimes I wake up and don’t want to be here. I am left wondering why, what did they do to deserve this?’
company director offered him a job at a branch of his manufacturing firm in Newport, South Wales, but he was later sacked after lapsing into drug addiction.
Despite this the Wilkinson family invited him to stay with them at Christmas last year and afterwards Barley wrote a letter to Mrs Wilkinson addressed “To the mother that I never had”.
But last March, Barley returned to the house and CCTV footage showed him lying in wait in the garden for several hours before striking.
Karim Khalil QC, prosecuting, said Barley had let himself in through the unlocked kitchen door when Mr Wilkinson took the dog out for a walk around 7.30am. When he returned Barley attacked him in a frenzy.
Describing what happened, Mr Wilkinson explained: “He said, ‘Die, you b------’ as he stuck the knife into me. I said to him after he’d stabbed me, ‘Aaron we tried to help you’, and he stuck the knife into my stomach and said ‘Die, you b------’.”
Mr Wilkinson was stabbed repeatedly in the attack and left for dead, while Barley stole the family car. He crashed it a short distance away and was arrested by police.
Meanwhile, Mr Wilkinson’s daughter, who was at university in Bristol, described desperately looking for information online after failing to get through to her family.
“I found out from my boyfriend ringing me to check if my family were OK,” she said. “I remember typing into Google ‘Stourbridge, stabbings’.
“And the first link showed a photo of my house with police tape around it. I remember ringing him back and saying ‘It’s me, it’s us, they’ve been stabbed’.”
Det Supt Tom Chisholm, of West Midlands Police, said: “This was a truly shocking incident. Clearly we deal with murder – it’s our job, we deal with it on a daily basis. It is incredibly rare that we deal with such an incident that has such a massive impact both on the victims’ family and the wider community, and indeed officers that investigated it.”
During police interviews, Barley, refused to say why he had attacked the family. Psychological reports showed he had a borderline personality disorder but found no signs of psychosis and stated he was in his right mind at the time of the murders.
As details of his 21 prior convictions were read out to the court – including assault and arson – Barley became emotional and shouted: “I’ve done what I’ve done, there’s no need to stand here and lie.”