An ex-Welsh Guardsman was jailed for life for the brutal murder of a retired teacher in his own home.
William Edwin (Wyn) Hughes, 62, was watching television with his partner Nina Pearce when he heard a hammering on his front door on New Year’s Eve 1995.
Mr Hughes, described as a “decent and gentle man” opened the door of his house in Tregarth, near Bangor and was confronted by Darren Morris who had been drinking and had taken drugs.
Morris, then 24, plunged a specially sharpened kitchen knife into his victim’s stomach and back in a random attack.
After a week-long trial at Mold Crown Court in October 1996 Morris was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Judge Mr Justice Thomas described the case as an appalling, motiveless killing.
“No one knows what was in your mind on that night although it is clear you were influenced by alcohol,” the judge told Morris.
Mr Hughes, a former woodwork teacher, had lived in the Bangor area almost all his life.
He split from his wife in 1984 but they did not divorce and she visited him from time to time.
At the time of his death he lived alone but had formed a relationship with Mrs Pearce who visited him as often as she could.
He had done nothing to harm anyone prosecutor Merfyn Hughes QC told the court.
“It is a sad but true fact that he was chosen to be the victim of the defendant’s violence almost at random,” he said.
The jury heard that Morris, originally from Wrexham, was obsessed with knives and had injected himself with a “massive dose” of amphetamine.
Morris had also taken cannabis and alcohol before calling at Mr Hughes’ home to ask if he knew a plumber.
Mr Hughes was unable to help and Morris, who also lived in Tregarth, went away.
But he returned an hour and a half later, at 10pm, and attacked Mr Hughes when he opened the door.
Mrs Pearce, a divorced mother of two, described to the jury how she ran into the hall to see Morris standing over Mr Hughes, a weapon in his raised hand.
She said Mr Hughes had cried out to her.
“The first thing I saw was this man with his back to me. Wyn was down on one knee, collapsed and defenceless.
“The man was standing over him with his right hand raised with a weapon in it.
“I don’t think he had finished with him, I don’t know,” she told a hushed courtroom.
Mrs Pearce tapped him on his shoulder and he looked round.
“I suppose he gave me a very startled look. He seemed very surprised to see me there. He shot out through the door. It all happened very quickly.”
After fleeing from the house Morris took a taxi to Bangor and less than an hour later Morris danced up a busy street. Later that night he tried to knife a pub doorman after he had been ejected.
After his arrest Hughes told detectives: “You know I have dreamed for weeks and weeks that I was going to murder someone.”
In a conversation in a police cell - tape-recorded by officers - it was claimed Morris told his former girlfriend Angela Hainge: “I don’t know why I did it. I just flipped my lid.”
Mr Hughes told the jury that coupled with Morris’ obsession with knives it was “not surprising” that eventually his dream had become a reality.
Morris had taken steps to prepare himself for an act of serious violence the barrister added noting he had previously hidden a knife and a club in a grass verge saying “I will leave them there until I need them.” The items were subsequently found by a passer-by.
There was no forensic or DNA evidence to link Morris with the murder.
An expert told the jury there were thin traces of blood on the kitchen knife that had been insuffiecient to group or gain a DNA profile.
Morris did not give evidence during the trial but his barrister Alex Carlile QC claimed there were doubts about the case.
Although there was evidence Morris might have been the killer there was at least an equal possibility that it was somebody else.
He added there was no evidence Morris had taken a substantial amount of amphetamine or that he was planning an act of serious violence.
In his closing speech to the jury Mr Carlile said: “In our submission there is evidence to support the view that somebody who knew Mr Hughes killed him.”
he continued: “May there not be a missing link in this case?
“On Mrs Pearce’s evidence the man who killed her friend, Wyn Hughes, was a slick, quick-fired villain in a car, more like a contract killer than a drunk.”
The jury spent almost four hours considering the evidence before delivering its verdict.
see-http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/crime-files-reopened-gwynedd-man-10983121
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