Two schoolboys have been jailed for life for the 100-blow Samurai sword murder of factory supervisor Robert Wilson.
Kiyran Earnshaw, 18, and Luke Gaukroger, 16, have been sentenced at Leeds Crown Court to minimum terms of 22 years and 16 years, eight months respectively.
The teenagers were confronted by Mr Wilson’s wife during the trial who asked them ‘How on earth have we come to this’.
CCTV footage, played in court, showed how Mr Wilson, 53, was investigating youths hanging around outside the Thornton and Ross pharmaceutical plant in Huddersfield when he was attacked by Earnshaw and Gaukroger, who passed a 20ins sword between them, at one point trying to decapitate their helpless victim.
Audio recorded from Mr Wilson’s phone call to a security firm captured the younger of the two – who was 15 at the time – shouting “get his head, I want to cut his head, Kia I want to cut his head”.
Kiyran Earnshaw, 18, and Luke Gaukroger, 16, have both been jailed for life over the murder
Robert Wilson, 53, was brutally attacked after going outside to investigate youths outside
The recording, also played in court, captured the night shift supervisor’s pleas to the youths to stop their attack.
Leeds Crown Court heard that Mr Wilson was married with two grown-up children and enjoyed gardening, golf and walking in the Yorkshire Dales.
His wife Elaine told the court his death was “completely incomprehensible”, adding: “How on earth have we come to this and why?”
She said she was sickened to receive a letter from one of the defendants saying it was the “worse night of my life and ‘I’m sorry”‘. She told the judge she had been shocked to “feel so much hate”.
She said to the defendants: “I want you to know you have taken the life of a much respected, admired and good man.”
Peter Makepeace QC, prosecuting, told the court that Earnshaw started the attack after producing the blue sword from inside his tracksuit bottoms.
After he started raining blows on Mr Wilson, the younger teenager was heard repeatedly shouting: “Pass me the shank, pass me the shank.”
Mr Wilson was attacked outside the Thornton and Ross pharmaceutical plant in Huddersfield
After multiple blows and kicks to Mr Wilson, Earnshaw passed the sword to Gaukroger, who can be identified after the judge lifted reporting restrictions following a submission by the PA Media news agency.
Mr Makepeace said the pair paused at one point to catch their breath and to rifle through Mr Wilson’s pockets, taking his coat.
The prosecutor said that, after they resume the attack, “Earnshaw and Gaukroger together holding the sword and crouching to the upper body then seem to make a concerted effort to saw the head from the shoulders”.
“Both then jointly stab the upper body using their combined force.”
Police who arrived at the scene reported seeing one of the pair “using the sword in sawing motion to the neck area of the deceased as if trying to detach the head from the body”.
Mr Makepeace said Earnshaw was Tasered twice before he was arrested and officers used an incapacitant spray on the boy.
The court heard that Mr Wilson had left the plant to talk to the youths in the car park with colleagues Paul Thewliss and John Badejo.
Mr Badejo was seriously injured as he tried to help his friend and both men were forced to flee for their lives, Mr Makepeace said.
He said: “There is no suggestion they were anything other than polite and decent in their dealings with the youths once they met up in the car park.”
Both defendants have admitted murdering Mr Wilson and causing Mr Badejo grievous bodily harm with intent.
Mr Makepeace said the defendants were seen taking tablets “washed down with vodka and other alcohol” as they hung around Huddersfield with friends before the incident in January.
He said that, after his arrest, Earnshaw was slurring his speech, asking why he had been arrested and complaining of police harassment.
He told officers he had taken cocaine and the tranquilliser Xanax.
Tests on drugs Earnshaw had in his possession found they were Flualprazolam – an artificial substance similar to Xanax which produces drowsiness, confusion and disinhibition
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