Door of justice after widow to death by teens tells him...
BORIS JOHNSON has vowed to tackle thugs who boast of “ruling the postcode” in a letter to a widow whose husband was murdered by “barbaric” teenagers wielding a Samurai sword.
Elaine Wilson had written to the PM urging him to crack down on young tearaways, pointing out that the two who killed Robert had been stopped repeatedly – yet were not properly punished.
Sending his “very deepest sympathy”, Mr Johnson replied: “As a human being – as a father, as a son, as a brother – I am filled with revulsion at what happened to Robert, with absolute contempt for his barbaric killers.”
He pledged to see young offenders properly dealt with and to “end this ridiculous revolving door system that I want to see the back of every bit as much as you do”.
Robert, 53, was stabbed and slashed more than 100 times by Kiyran Earnshaw, 19, and Luke Gaukroger, 16, in January after he asked them to leave the grounds of the Thornton and Ross pharmaceutical plant where he worked in Linthwaite, West Yorks.
The pair passed the weapon between themselves, using it to try to decapitate him, after spending their day drinking vodka and swallowing tablets of prescription drug Xanax.
The pair had a long string of convictions but were still on the streets.
Elaine, 61, wrote: “How many red flags need to be waved? I wonder if the youth offending team are sleeping at night. These youths, they know the system and are no longer afraid. Enough is enough.” Both Earnshaw and Gaukroger had been in court to be sentenced for violent offences in the six months before the murder.
They had avoided any prison time, instead receiving community rehabilitation orders.
Two months before the murder Gaukroger of Huddersfield appeared in court to admit affray and possession of an offensive weapon, a baseball bat, while in the company of two others, one armed with a gun. His sentence was a 12-month referral order which meant he would have to work with a youth offending panel.
In June 2019, six months before the murder, Earnshaw, from Batley, also appeared in court over an assault on an shop employee. He was already subject to a referral order imposed at Leeds Crown Court for previous knife offences, but was still given a further community order.
Elaine also wrote to justice secretary Robert Buckland, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and several MPS. She wrote: “I write this letter to you with sorrow, anger and much frustration,” she wrote to Mr Johnson.
“You may be aware that my husband Robert Wilson was brutally murdered on January 16.
“Both youths had previous crimes which included the carrying of knives, and youth orders were given time and time again.
“The youngest had appeared at Crown Court only two months prior to Robert’s murder. There is no doubt in my mind that the lenient sentences previously given had no effect on either youth.”
While Gaukroger was on
‘I am filled with revulsion... with absolute contempt for his barbaric killers’ BORIS JOHNSON
BORIS JOHNSON
remand for the murder he wrote rap lyrics that glorified the killing, but conceded he would not “get away” with the crime.
Elaine believes if they had been treated more seriously earlier they may not have killed her husband.
She added: “If you read the ‘rap bars’ written by Gaukroger, he states that he won’t get away with this case. I wonder if the youth offending team, who deemed Earnshaw to be high risk to others, but medium risk of reoffending are sleeping at night.
“I would like them to spend a day in my shoes.”
Mr Johnston replied: “Just as no words can adequately describe the loss you have suffered, I realise that nothing I write here will lessen the grief you are now forced to live with. The criminal justice system should protect the public, not the offender.”
He referred to new plans in place, including increased stop and search, new knife rules and punishments.