A 73-year-old farmer from South Yorkshire has been jailed for a minimum of 35 years for killing his lodger and concealing the dismembered body in a barrel filled with concrete for more than five years.
Christopher Wright was convicted in July at Sheffield crown court of murdering Richard Dyson, 55, in 2019. Dyson had been living in his car on Wright’s farm in Hoyland and had been doing jobs for the then 67-year-old when the pair had a falling out.
Dispute over stolen possessions
Wright, an antique firearms collector described as a “weapons fanatic” during his trial, suspected Dyson of stealing some of his prized possessions and selling them. The court heard that when Wright confronted Dyson with his suspicions in November 2019, an argument broke out that ended with Dyson being shot in the chest and arm with a shotgun, killing him.
Wright, a former butcher, dismembered Dyson’s body over several days, placed the remains in a barrel, and filled it with concrete. He then put the barrel in a trailer and asked an unsuspecting neighbour to keep the vehicle on their property. Wright was aided by Karl Schwalbe, a lifelong friend who received a three-year sentence for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Discovery after five and a half years
Dyson’s disappearance was initially treated as a missing person inquiry, and his remains went undiscovered for more than five and a half years. South Yorkshire police were aware he had been on Wright’s land in the days leading up to his disappearance but could not find evidence implicating the farmer, who denied any knowledge of Dyson’s whereabouts.
Dyson remained missing until July 2025, when police, driven by new evidence showing Wright had contacted a local farmer about storing a vehicle on his property in the days after Dyson disappeared, searched the farm and found a barrel containing concrete and human remains, later identified as Dyson’s.
Sentencing and victim impact
Speaking after sentencing on Thursday, Mr Justice Cotter told Wright he would probably die in prison and said the killer’s experience as a butcher made him “skilled enough to do such a terrible thing, something few ordinary people would have the stomach for”.
Dyson’s daughter Bethany Dainty, who filed a missing person report in the days after her father was murdered, read a victim impact statement in court, detailing how hard it had been not knowing her father’s fate: “I couldn’t grieve because I did not know the truth.” She added: “While I cried myself to sleep, while I begged for answers, while I prayed my dad would walk through the door again, someone already knew where he was. Someone watched me suffer for years and said nothing. That level of cruelty is impossible for me to understand.”
After the sentencing, DCI Andy Knowles praised Dyson’s family for the strength they showed during a “long, complex and emotionally draining” investigation. Knowles said: “Wright and Schwalbe knew what happened to Richard and even with the evidence against them, they continued to deny accountability, making Richard’s family endure a trial, listen to harrowing evidence and distressing testimonies. The strength and dignity in confronting each moment of this process has been nothing short of extraordinary.”
