Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Landlady locked up for 20 years for lodger’s murder
ALANDLADY who murdered her lodger was yesterday jailed for life – as it emerged the victim previously killed his wife in front of their two young sons.
Yoga teacher Dawn Lewis, 54, was told she would serve a minimum of 20 years for killing Glenn Richards, 61, at her home.
A trial heard Lewis had wanted to evict him from her cottage in Glastonbury, Somerset.
The court heard Mr Richards moved to Glastonbury after being released from prison in 2011 for the manslaughter of his wife Karen in 2001.
Before sentencing was passed yesterday, a tearful victim impact statement was read out by the victim’s son Jamie Richards, who said it brought back horrific memories of what he witnessed as a boy.
Jamie told a court he felt “robbed of a chance at closure” as he was just weeks away from seeing his dad for the first time since witnessing his mother’s bloody death as an 11-yearold back in 2001.
He said: “In 2001 Glenn Richards killed my mother in front of me and my brother. I was just 11 at the time that was the last time saw I saw Glenn Richards alive.
“Since Glenn’s death I have been taken back 21 years to that scared 11-year-old boy unaware of what the future will hold.
“I listened to the details of what Glenn did to my mum and found myself back there in the kitchen, making apple crumble when Glenn burst through the door with a knife screaming ‘where is your mother?’
“It brought back everything, a new wave of emotion that left me feeling confused and emotionally exhausted.
“I felt in moments Glenn deserved what happened, but I have my mum’s heart and no-one, not even Glenn, should have their life taken from them.
“Because of Dawn Lewis, I have had to start another grief process because of the murder of another parent all over again.”
Jamie told the court he had spent years building up to the meeting with his father that was due to take place just weeks after his murder.
He said he thought it was a “sick joke” after hearing of his dad’s murder.
He added: “I was angry. I was believing in my head he was in hell. I couldn’t believe he had done something again to jeopardise our meeting.
“I assumed he had tried to kill
Since Glenn’s death I have been taken back 21 years to that scared 11-year-old boy
JAMIE RICHARDS
someone again. I then spent the next few months wondering if it was the case, which was a constant reminder of what he did to mum.
“It turns out this was not the case – and I learnt that Glenn had changed to some degree.
“He was ill at the time he killed mum. That will never excuse what he did and I will never forgive.
“I will always hate him for taking my mum away from him. He also took himself away from my life.
“He knew he wasn’t going to hear nice things and what we were planning to say would have been hurtful. But he was prepared to sit down and listen and take it like a man.
“The opportunity to say the impact it had on my growing up was taken away from me by Dawn Lewis.
“I will never get to say those things to him. It is true what they say, time is a healer, however pain only numbs; it never heals.
“If I met Glenn as planned I could have walked away and gained closure. I feel like I needed Glenn to live out his days alone having heard the harsh realities of what he did to me growing up.
“I will never know what would have come from our meeting. Because of Dawn Lewis I will never know.”
The court heard Glenn had moved in with the defendant in August last year but prosecutors heard they would often argue and he would complain about her noise.
Sentencing her at Bristol Crown Court yesterday, judge His Honour William Hart said she had tried to cover up her murder by playing on her fear she could have been another victim.
He said: “Glenn Richards was jailed for life for stabbing to death Karen Richards on 7 May 2001 in front of their two young sons, Jamie and Daniel.
“He was forever marked by the burden of guilt for what he had done – and rightly so – but he was genuinely contrite.”
He said rather than being fearful of him, as she had claimed, she had become “increasingly intolerant” of him.
“You decided Glenn Richards had to be removed from your life. You premeditated his killing and how you might get away with it.”
The judge said she added colour to the events by trying to paint him as an imminent danger to him.
But he added: “Your actions were attributed to anger rather than terror. You armed yourself with a knife, went upstairs, forced entry and he was repeatedly stabbed by you. It was a savage attack
“You then inflicted minor incise wounds to your thigh to make it look like you were the victim. The disparity between his wounds and yours were telling.”
The court previously heard how Mr Richards suffered five large stab wounds, two of which were “not survivable”.
Lewis suffered three cuts to her thigh but one doctor told the trial her injuries “did not appear to fit the description of the attack” and appeared “self-inflicted”.
The trial heard Glenn had been convicted of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility in 2002 for the killing of his former wife.
Lewis had said she had become increasingly alarmed about her lodger’s behaviour and began carrying a knife as he started talking “in a different manner” about the killing of his wife.