Pie fortune heir jailed for killing best friend
David Grundy
BBC News
Reporting fromCardiff Crown Court
South Wales Police
Dylan Thomas murdered his best friend in a “brutal and senseless” attack on Christmas Eve
The heir to a pie company fortune has been sentenced to life in prison for the “barbaric and cruel” murder of his best friend on Christmas Eve in the house they shared.
Dylan Thomas stabbed William Bush, 23, on 24 December 2023, a total of 37 times with a large kitchen knife and a flick knife.
Thomas, 24, who admitted manslaughter but denied murder, had looked up details of the anatomy of the neck in the hours before the attack in Llandaff, Cardiff.
Thomas is the grandson of Sir Stanley Thomas, who made his fortune with his brother in the south Wales-based family firm Peter’s Pies, and who was present in court for the sentencing.
Thomas will serve a minimum term of 19 years before he eligible to be considered for release.
It took jurors three hours to find him guilty of murder in November.
On Friday, Thomas appeared before the court by video link from Ashworth Hospital in Liverpool, where he is being treated for schizophrenia and psychosis.
He sat emotionless, speaking only to confirm he could hear the judge.
Judge Karen Steyn described the murder as a “sustained and ferocious knife attack” on “a young man who had been a firm and loyal friend”.
“He was a compassionate, loving, witty and vibrant young man,” she said.
“He had a bright future ahead of him.”
She said Mr Bush was “senselessly murdered” depriving him of “many, many decades of a happy and fulfilling life”.
She added the sentence was “not intended as a measure of the value of Will’s life”, adding that was “beyond measure”.
Speaking in court, Mr Bush’s sister Catrin said her brother’s life was taken “in the most barbaric and cruel way”.
“Will was such a loyal, funny and caring person, he lit up every room he walked into with his cheeky grin,” she said.
“My family have been left with a massive hole which will never be filled.”
John Bush, William’s father, added their lives had been changed in “a profound and fundamental way”.
“Christmas will not be a time of celebration for our family for many years,” he said.
Elle Jeffreys, William’s girlfriend, told the court she had “lost a future we had both planned and prepared for”.
She said he was a big supporter of Arsenal football club and was fit and active, playing golf for his home county of Powys and running the Cardiff Half Marathon with her in 2023.
“Will was the love of my life and meant everything to me,” she said.
“He would light up any room he walked in to.
“Life will never be the same without Will.”
Family photo
William Bush was described by his family as a “a loyal, funny, caring and trusting person”
During the trial, the prosecution told Cardiff Crown Court that Thomas was in a “downward spiral” but in control of his actions at the time of the killing.
He had been arrested weeks earlier for trying to scale the fence at Buckingham Palace and had been released on police bail.
On the morning of the attack, Thomas was driven to Llandaff by his grandmother, Sharon Burton, insisting he wanted to walk his dog, Bruce.
Mrs Burton described him as becoming “more and more agitated” during the journey.
When she parked outside the property, Thomas went in, got the knives, went to Mr Bush’s bedroom and stabbed him repeatedly.
The prosecution said passers-by “heard screams of horror” from the house.
Thomas banged on his grandmother’s car window and she found Mr Bush on the patio outside.
Thomas murdered Mr Bush at the house in Llandaff, Cardiff, that they lived in together
Thomas called 999 for an ambulance after the attack, claiming his friend had “gone mental” and stabbed him.
But the prosecution told the trial it was “a planned attack” by Thomas on Mr Bush and he “deliberately armed himself with knives and attacked him from behind”.
The court was given expert opinion that Thomas had been psychotic for months before the killing.
Jurors heard that he told police officers he was Jesus after his arrest for the killing and offered one police officer a “job with God”.
William Bush’s sister Catrin previously described Thomas as an “evil, manipulative liar”
Judge Steyn said: “It must have been particularly terrifying and horrifying for Mr Bush to be attacked in his home, indeed, in his own bedroom by one of his closest friends. He could be heard to scream and cry, and he plainly struggled to fend off your brutal assault.”
Orlando Pownall, defending Thomas, offered no personal mitigation on behalf of his client but said there was not a “significant degree of planning or premeditation”.
He said Thomas regretted not seeking psychiatric help, adding “opportunities were missed” by people around him before the attack.
Following the sentencing, Chris Evans of the Crown Prosecution Service said the “frenzied attack” was a “shocking” level of violence.
He added Thomas’s actions on the lead up to the murder “demonstrated he was thinking clearly and gave an indication of his intention”.
Det Con Joanne Harris of South Wales Police added Mr Bush was “killed by someone he regarded as his friend having done nothing to warrant the brutal violence inflicted upon him”.
The Thomas family company was launched as Thomas Pies in the 1950s, selling sausage rolls, pies and pasties around the south Wales valleys.
In the 1970s it became Peter’s Pies, and is now known as Peter’s Food, based in Bedwas in Caerphilly county.
The late Stan Thomas passed on the company to his sons Stan junior – Dylan Thomas’s grandfather – and Peter, the former chairman of Cardiff RFC rugby club, who died in 2023. They sold the company in 1988.
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