LONDON — Christopher Wright, a 73-year-old farmer and former butcher, has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his lodger, Richard Dyson. Wright dismembered Dyson's body and concealed the remains in a concrete-filled barrel for six years.
The court handed Wright a minimum term of 33 years and 353 days before he becomes eligible for parole. His partner, Sharon Schwalbe, was also convicted of assisting an offender.
Dyson was last heard from on Nov. 17, 2019, when a call was made from his phone. The investigation began as a missing person inquiry, with authorities unaware of the true circumstances for years. At the time of his death, Dyson had been living in vehicles on Wright's property.
The presiding judge said, "You had worked as a butcher and were skilled enough to do such a terrible thing, something few ordinary people would have the stomach for."
Bethany Dainty, Dyson's daughter, spoke of the suffering caused by not knowing her father's fate. In her victim impact statement, Dainty said, "I couldn't grieve because I did not know the truth."
During the investigation, detectives recorded a conversation between Wright and Schwalbe in a police car park after an interview, in which the pair discussed CCTV footage gathered as evidence. Wright was also filmed in a hotel room praying for absolution and for his weapons to remain undiscovered by police.
Christopher Dunn, representing Schwalbe, described her failure to disclose what happened to police as "an error of Biblical proportions."
