Three teenage thugs who hunted down and killed the "wrong man" in a sickening knife attack have been jailed for life.
Kane Adamson, Joshua Prescott and Ben Dawber, who were all teenagers at the time, launched a sickening knife attack on innocent man Thomas Williamson who was out on a walk to clear his head. Mr Williamson, 30, who suffered mental health problems, was stabbed a number of times including one that penetrated his heart and lung. The entirely innocent man died at the scene.
The three young men who launched the attack were all jailed for murder at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court yesterday, Tuesday, March 14. Jailing them for life, Judge Maurice Greene told them: "The tragedy is that Thomas Williamson was the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time."
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In court Mr Williamson's heartbroken mum Susan Williamson slammed the lies told by Dawber, who robbed a pizza delivery driver while he was on bail for the murder. Dawber told the jury he acted in self-defence. Mrs Williamson said of her son: "I miss Thomas so much every day."
On the night of September 25 2021, the three thugs had been looking for another man, David Shuttleworth, who had earlier that night punched Jake Dinning. The trial heard Mr Shuttleworth punched Mr Dinning as he thought the latter had been "in dispute" with his girlfriend outside Lounge Bar in Tyldesley, Wigan, shortly after 1am.
The Manchester Evening News reported the three defendants had been drinking vodka and inhaling nitrous oxide balloons. Prosecutor Jason Pitter KC told the court the teens were driving by the Castle Street bar and "took the opportunity to involve themselves in the brewing trouble". When they pulled up, Mr Shuttleworth ran off as he believed the three men in the Chevrolet Kalos on false plates were "associates" of the man he had just punched.
Mr Pitter said: "That was too good an opportunity for the defendants to miss," who added the men instructed a reluctant Mr Dinning to get into the car replacing a fourth occupant who was left on the street. They drove around "on the hunt for Mr Shuttleworth" who hid in nearby street Cotton Close.
Mr Williamson walked past and one of the occupants mistakenly identified him as Mr Shuttleworth. Mr Williamson died of "multiple stab wounds". He suffered bruising to his face and cuts to his hands consistent with "defensive injuries".
The jury heard the victim was "someone with a long history of mental illness which included self harming". The previous day he suffered "another mental health crisis" where he had been drinking cider and Jack Daniels and had threatened to take his own life. His mum Susan Williamson said he punched his wardrobe before leaving the house, possibly with a kitchen knife and the bottle of Jack Daniels.
His mum called police and the court heard the officers dispatched in search of him found him bleeding to death in a street near his home. In a victim impact statement read out in court, Mrs Williamson said: "I miss Thomas so much every day. He was always asking me how my day had been and to send me off to work with a 'have a good day' and to give me a hug.
"There's a hole in my life with him gone that can never be filled and our home is empty without him.... When I hear sounds coming from upstairs, my first thought is of Tom and thinking he's going to come down the stairs. It hurts every time." She described her son as a "loving, kind and fun and he always knew how to lift my spirits and make me laugh".
She added "no parent should ever have to experience" what she heard in court - and said it really upset her when she heard Dawber claim he had acted in self-defence. She added: "Given the chance, he would just have walked away but was never given the chance."
Mrs Williamson said she was relieved the three defendants were now behind bars where they could not "cause any more heartache". She added: "They all have a future, something they have taken away from Tom."
Two of the defendants, Dawber and Adamson, admitted an attempted robbery earlier that night. Dawber, then 16, had also been part of a robbery in Tyldesley when he and an accomplice threatened a man with a machete and kicked him for his mobile phone and cash on August 4, 2021, the month before the murder. On the same night, Dawber also robbed a pizza delivery driver at knife-point for his wallet. He repeatedly punched the driver and made off in his car.
Two months after the murder, on November 17, while he was on police bail over the killing, Dawber robbed another delivery driver, this time in Leigh. David Spence KC, defending Dawber, told the court: "The weight of the evidence appears to be that Mr Williamson, in order justifiably to protect himself from an intended robbery, drew the knife and then it was turned upon him."
The barrister said the murder had been "spontaneous" rather than planned. He told the judge: "This was a young man in circumstances beyond his control within a short time of his birth had no parents. He was brought up by his grandparents and his grandfather was effectively his father and role model to him.
"When his grandfather died in 2020 he had been up to that point a man of good character and within two months he embarked upon a spree of offending. Your honour may take the view that's not a coincidence."
Michael Brady KC, representing Adamson, said Mr Williamson had been targeted because of "mistaken identity" rather than because he was a "lone individual", while the violence his client had used in earlier robberies was "relatively mild". The barrister said there had been "clearly no premeditation" in the murder.
Steven Swift, defending Prescott, told the court his client had played a "secondary or lesser role" in the attack, and that a lack of previous convictions showed there had been "no pattern of similar offending". Judge Greene told the three defendants: "It's not clear why the three of you decided to involve yourself in a matter that didn't concern you."
He described Mr Williamson as a "gentle soul" and he said his attackers were "out looking for trouble that night". He added: "The tragedy is that Thomas Williamson was the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time."
He jailed all three defendants for life. He told Dawber he must serve a minimum 20 years behind bars before he becomes eligible for parole. Adamson, who has 12 sets of previous convictions for 22 offences including robbery, was told he must serve a minimum 18 years. The court heard he had been involved in the disposal of the car and other items following the murder.
Prescott, who had no previous convictions for violence, must serve at least 17 years in custody. Adamson, of no fixed abode, now 19, Prescott, of Walter Street in Leigh, now 20 and Dawber, of no fixed abode, now 19, all denied murder. Dawber also admitted three counts of robbery and one of attempted robbery.
The defendants showed no reaction as the sentences were handed down, although some friends in the public gallery were in tears.
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