Teenage samurai sword pair hacked dad-of-two to death
Drugged-up duo tried to decapitate victim
TWO teenagers high on drink and drugs murdered a hard-working family man with a Samurai sword in a barbaric and senseless attack, a court heard yesterday.
Robert Wilson, 53, was hacked to death with more than 100 blows from the weapon when he went to investigate youths hanging around in a car park outside the factory where he was a nightshift supervisor.
Yesterday his widow Elaine Wilson told Leeds Crown Court that it was ‘souldestroying’ to discover her ‘loving’ husband had been killed while ‘just doing his job’ by teenagers who ‘chose to kill for no reason at all’. She said: ‘ How on earth have we come to this and why?’
Mrs Wilson said one of the youths had written to tell her it was the ‘worst night of my life’ and ‘I’m sorry’. She added: ‘It is a shock to me to realise I can feel so much hate.’
Kiyran Earnshaw, 18, and Luke Gaukroger, 15, launched the ‘ frenzied’ assault for no reason, taking turns to stab, chop and slash at Mr Wilson with the 20-inch blade as he lay helpless on the ground. They even tried to decapitate him during the savage tenminute attack, which stopped only when police arrived.
The attack was captured on CCTV and recorded on a mobile phone call Mr Wilson made to the factory’s security firm. Both were played to the court after the victim’s family left the room. Mr Wilson could be heard screaming in agony as Earnshaw struck him with the sword.
In his desperation, the factory supervisor, who had politely asked the youths to leave, told them: ‘ All right, lads... I’ll let you go.’
But they showed no mercy and continued the onslaught, which began when Earnshaw wrongly thought Mr Wilson was filming him on his phone.
Both defendants admitted murder and Earnshaw also pleaded guilty to wounding Mr Wilson’s colleague. Earnshaw was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 22 years. Gaukroger was sentenced to a minimum of 16 years and eight months.
Mr Justice Lavender told them Mr Wilson, pictured, had ‘done you no wrong’, adding: ‘You ended his life and brought lifelong misery and grief to his wife, two stepchildren and other family and friends.’
The judge allowed the media to name Gaukroger, who is now 16, due to the extreme nature of the crime. Prosecutor Peter Makepeace QC told the court the two youths met up with three friends in Linthwaite, Huddersfield, on the evening of January 16 and were seen drinking and taking drugs. At one stage the duo began ‘play fighting’, with Earnshaw wielding the sword and Gaukroger a knife. The group ended up outside the factory where Earnshaw’s mother worked and were seen on security cameras. As a result, Mr Wilson asked two colleagues to go outside with him to speak to the youths. Mr Makepeace said they had no expectation of trouble. But the two teenagers, both with a history of violent crime, launched an unprovoked attack on Mr
Wilson. The victim couldn’t defend himself as Earnshaw slashed him with the sword. One of his colleagues, John Badejo, tried to help but was struck in the hand and he and his other colleague ‘ran for their lives’.
Earnshaw and then Gaukroger repeatedly struck Mr Wilson around the head, neck and upper body. At one point, Gaukroger shouted, ‘get his head, I want to cut his head, Ky, I want to cut his head’.
After Earnshaw started raining blows on Mr Wilson, the younger teen demanded: ‘ Pass me the shank [knife], pass me the shank.’
Detective Chief Inspector Marc Bowes, of West Yorkshire Police, described the attack as ‘barbaric’ and said both teenagers ‘acted in a manner which many of us would struggle to comprehend’.