Christopher Wright, a 73-year-old former butcher and farmer, has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 35 years for the murder of Richard Dyson, 55, whose body was hidden in a concrete-filled barrel. The sentence was handed down at Sheffield Crown Court by Mr Justice Cotter, who noted that Wright was likely to die in prison.
Body Discovered Six Years After Disappearance
Dyson, who lived in a car on Wright's land in Hoyland, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, went missing in 2019. His body was not found until last year, when police discovered it concealed in a barrel on a trailer. The victim's daughter had reported him missing, and the inquiry later became a murder investigation.
Wright, an antique firearms collector, suspected Dyson of stealing from him and selling his possessions. The pair had fallen out after Dyson, who did odd jobs for the farmer, was accused of theft. Wright shot Dyson in the arm and chest, then dismembered him over the following days. He bought cement from a builder's merchant and hid the body parts in a blue barrel, which he placed on a trailer and asked an unwitting neighbour to store.
Accomplice Sentenced
Karl Schwalbe, 72, a childhood friend of Wright, was convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice for helping to conceal the crime. He was jailed for three years.
During the trial, the court heard that Wright and Schwalbe were recorded by police car park cameras discussing CCTV evidence after being questioned by detectives. Wright was also filmed in a hotel praying for absolution from God and that his weapons would not be found during a police search of his property.
Victim's Family Speaks Out
In a victim's statement, Dyson's daughter Bethany Dainty said she could not grieve because she did not know the truth for so long. The judge told Wright: "You had worked as a butcher and were skilled enough to do such a terrible thing, something few ordinary people would have the stomach for."
Wright was convicted of murder, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, preventing a lawful burial, and firearms offences. Christopher Dunn, defending Schwalbe, described his client's failure to report the crime as "an error of Biblical proportions."
