Sports therapist jailed for life over crossbow murder
ASPORTS therapist has been jailed for a minimum of 31 years for the crossbow killing of a retired lecturer.
Terence Whall, 39, was convicted on Monday of the murder of Gerald Corrigan, 74, who was shot as he adjusted a satellite dish outside his home in Anglesey in the early hours of Good Friday, April 19, last year.
He was sentenced to life at Mold Crown Court yesterday.
Speaking in court from behind a screen, Mr Corrigan’s son Neale said through tears: “How can someone choose to use such a barbaric weapon on an old man? Did they really want to cause him a slow and painful death? Because that is what we witnessed and although God will ease the pain for us, we will never ever be able to forget that.”
Also reading a statement from behind a screen, Mr Corrigan’s partner, Marie Bailey, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, described him as “an exceptional man of intellect, quick-witted and the best person to have around.”
But she said all her memories of her happy life with him now had to compete with the image of “his life blood spilling out into the hall”.
She said: “I miss him so much. He was my love. In a crisis, Gerry was the best person to have around. He always knew the best thing to do. I will miss his great big bear hugs.”
She added: “I am absolutely devastated to lose him. My desperation is overwhelming. It’s a living hell. Gerry didn’t have chance, his back was turned and he had no chance to defend himself.
“I am now left with the image of his life blood spilling out into the hall. The pain must have been excruciating.”
She described how she had to watch him slowly die in hospital over a period of weeks.
“I was helpless,” she said. “It is a terrible inferno inside me every day, thinking of how Gerry was murdered and how he suffered.
“The person responsible for his murder cannot take his memories away from me, no matter how evil his actions were.”
Sentencing Whall, judge Mrs Justice Jefford said: “You have deprived Mr Corrigan’s family of any explanation for what was a horrific death in which Mr Corrigan was completely blameless. For your own reasons you clearly had a plan to kill.”
She added: “Your arrogant belief that you could get away murder was misplaced.”
Anna Pope, prosecuting, told the court that Whall, originally from east London, had hidden behind a wall outside the pensioner’s remote home and tampered with the satellite dish to lure him into the garden where he shot him.
Whall initially claimed he was at home in Bryngwran, Anglesey, on the night of the shooting, but, when the GPS data in his Land Rover Discovery was recovered, he said he was having a sexual encounter with friend Barry Williams in a nearby field. Mr Williams denied the claims. North Wales Police said a parallel fraud investigation was ongoing after claims that Mr Corrigan and Ms Bailey handed over £250,000 to convicted fraudster Richard Wyn Lewis.
Whall was given a concurrent sentence of six years for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice for a plot to set fire to his Land Rover, which was discovered burnt out in a disused quarry on June 3.
Gavin Jones, 36, was jailed for five years for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and the judge said he was “integrally involved” in the plan.
Ms Pope said Whall, who was heavily in debt, had given no motive for the killing and there was no evidence of a connection between him and Mr Corrigan, who died in hospital on May 11.
She argued the court could conclude that the shooting was a “murder for gain”, but David Elias QC, representing Whall, said it could not be sure to the criminal standard.
The judge said it was “speculation” to say Whall was paid to carry out the murder or that it happened because Mr Corrigan was about to report fraud by Mr Lewis to the police.
Jones’ brother, Darren Jones, 41, was sentenced to two years and 10 months for arson, and Martin Roberts, who turned 35 on the day of sentencing, was jailed for two years and four months for arson.
The two men had admitted on the fifth day of the trial to setting fire to the car, but the court heard that they believed it was part of an insurance scam.
Elen Owen, representing Roberts, said he had been assaulted by a codefendant, which led to him being moved to a different prison, and a threat was made against him on the day he entered his plea.
Speaking outside Mold Crown Court, Detective Chief Inspector Brian Kearney said: “Gerald was an innocent victim of a barbaric murder. We welcome the sentences handed down today.”
He added: “I continue to keep an open mind as to why Gerald was targeted but clearly, as outlined by Peter Rouch QC, someone wanted Gerald Corrigan dead. This is clearly in the wider context that the victim, Gerald, was a source or potential source of grief to local criminality.”