Western Morning News (Saturday)
Knifeman given life sentence for brutal murder
Louis will always be remembered as a gentle warrior who would do anything for anyone
ADRUG-FUELLED knife attacker has been jailed for life for murdering a muchloved father in a senseless fight over a stolen bottle of vodka.
Matthew Sheridan was branded as a bragging liar who has showed “not one shred of remorse” by a judge at Exeter Crown Court as he was ordered to serve a minimum term of 25 years.
The judge imposed the sentence after hearing how the “callous” killing of 40-year-old security man Louis Bednall had devastated his family.
Sheridan, who liked to be known as Manic, was high on drink and drugs when he stabbed Mr Bednall 14 times in the head and upper body, including the fatal wound to his jugular vein.
He recorded a series of bragging Snapchat videos in the 35 minutes between the stabbing and his arrest but inadvertently recorded himself confessing to the crime when he thought the mobile phone had stopped recording.
He said: “We almost got nicked up by the feds big time. I put it in and twisted it. I think I’ve just been done for murder. I just murdered someone.”
Mr Bednall was a father of five children and a grandfather who was described as “a family lion” in tributes issued after he was stabbed to death in a bedsit in Yeovil last December.
In victim impact statements, his younger sister Cassie said the whole family was shell-shocked and his five children, aged two to 21, cried themselves to sleep every night.
“Louis will always be remembered as a gentle warrior who would do anything for anyone,” she said.
Farm worker Sheridan, aged 30, of South Petherton, Somerset, denied murder but was found guilty in just 90 minutes by a jury on Thursday.
Yesterday, he was jailed for life with a minimum tariff of 25 years by Judge Peter Johnson. It means he will not be able to even apply for parole until December 2045.
The judge told him: “The catalyst for the killing was Mr Bednall asking you for proof of purchase of the vodka. You were not willing to suffer a loss of face and had already decided to attack him when you stabbed him.
“While the paramedics were desperately trying to save Mr Bednall, you were revelling in what you had done, making a video for Snapchat in which you described the fatal blow.”
Mr Bednall lived in Torbay and had worked in security throughout the area and Teignbridge, including a spell at Torbay Hospital.
He went to Yeovil on the night of December 11, 2020, to deliver Christmas presents to friends. Mr Bednall arrived at around 11pm with a £17 litre bottle of vodka, which he had bought in Newton Abbot on his way to Yeovil and which was still unopened when he was killed.
He and friends went to a local Tesco just before midnight to buy food and returned to find that Sheridan had broken into their flat via a flat roof and window and stolen the bottle of vodka.
They saw him with it in the hallway but he claimed he had just bought it, which they knew to be a lie. Mr Bednall confronted him and demanded he return the stolen vodka and after an argument that lasted about 20 minutes,
While they tried to save Mr Bednall, you were revelling in what you had done JUDGE PETER JOHNSON
Sheridan went back up to his room and came down with the knife hidden in a back pocket.
CCTV showed him checking the weapon and reaching for it as he lunged into the room and launched the fatal attack.
The stabbing left a scene which one person described as like a horror movie.
Lewis Power QC, defending, said Sheridan had a history of petty crime but that he had never done anything as serious as this before. He said the killing was not premeditated.