Guilty verdict over crossbow murder

A RETIRED lecturer who allowed cannabis to be grown at his home to treat his wife’s multiple sclerosis was murdered in a “medieval-style” killing after angering local criminals, police suggested.

Gerald Corrigan, 74, was shot with a crossbow outside his home in a remote part of Holyhead, Anglesey, in April last year, as he tried to fix a satellite dish late at night.

Terence Whall, a 39-yearold tai chi instructor from east London, denied murder but was yesterday found guilty at Mold Crown Court.

Prosecutors said that a broadhead arrow with razor sharp edges designed for hunting was used to attack Mr Corrigan. He died of sepsis in hospital three weeks later.

Det Ch Ins Brian Kearney, of North Wales Police, said: “Gerald Corrigan was the victim of a barbaric, medieval-style execution in one of the safest parts of the UK.”

Following the verdict, detectives said “someone wanted Gerald Corrigan dead”, and that he had become a “potential source of grief to local criminality”.

The court heard that Mr Corrigan and his partner Marie Bailey, 64, allowed Richard Wyn Lewis, a convicted fraudster, to grow cannabis in an outbuilding on their property.

But Mr Corrigan became “very angry” with Mr Lewis when he discovered a largescale cannabis farm had been installed. He ordered Mr Lewis, who has previous convictions for obtaining money by deception and producing cannabis, to remove it.

The court heard that the couple had given £250,000 to Mr Lewis, who remains under investigation.