Two teenage killers, 18 and 16, who tried to decapitate factory worker with a Samurai sword jailed

Two schoolboys have been jailed for life for the 100-blow Samurai sword murder of factory supervisor Robert Wilson – where they howled they would decapitate him, before pausing to steal his coat and carrying on.

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 Elaine 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, West Yorks.

He and colleague John Badejo warned them they were trespassing and should go before police arrived.

The youths said they had lost a phone and the two men even tried to help them before the brutal violence exploded.

Earnhsaw reached into his jogging bottoms and pulled out a 20ins sword he used to savagely attack Mr Wilson.

He passed it to his young accomplice Gaukroger, at one point both 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’.

His wife Elaine said after the court sentencing that the killers ‘Do not deserve a place in society’.

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.’

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.

Judge the Honourable Mr Justice Lavender told them: ‘You were both highly intoxicated when you used a samurai sword to inflict wounds on Robert Wilson, who had done no wrong.

“You each consumed a great deal of alcohol and drugs.

“You used the sword in repeated attempts to cut off his head.

“The two of you went back to him several times, not only stabbing him but kicking him and stamping on his head.

“You passed the sword between you, continuing to stab Mr Wilson as he lay dying.

“This frenzied and senseless attack on a man who was quite unable to defend himself went on for ten minutes.

“You only stopped when police arrived.

“I have watched the recording and it’s a truly gruesome sight.”

DCI Marc Bowes of the Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, Senior Investigating Officer in the case, said: ‘The murder of Mr Wilson and the serious assault on Mr Badejo were truly dreadful offences in what was a horrendous incident for the community of Linthwaite.

‘It is no exaggeration to say the level of violence used by these males in the attacks was absolutely barbaric.

‘They both acted in a manner which many of us would struggle to comprehend and committed acts which were among the worst that I and other members of my investigation team have witnessed in our policing careers. Thankfully such acts are very rare occurrences in today’s society.’

He added: ‘We can’t begin to imagine the appalling impact Mr Wilson’s murder has had on his family. Their courage and dignity in coping with such a traumatic event has been immense.’