A young drifter killed an elderly farmer and her pensioner friend in a horrific double murder in May 2002.
Martin Cartwright, who was 20 at the time of the attacks, was staying at the farm and caravan site of Elsie Davies in Llangollen carrying out odd jobs for food and pocket money.
In May he bought a lock-knife from a market stall in the town and returned to Tower Farm, where Mrs Davies had lived for 46 years.
He confronted the 88-year-old widow in a cow shed and stabbed her twice in the neck.
He then strangled her and covered her body with silage before entering the farmhouse where he saw family friend Joseph Ashton, 82, who was staying at the farm.
A keen gardener Mr Ashton regularly stayed at the farm with his wife Eva and after her death he remained a close family friend.
Friends said the former ambulance driver was sprightly for his age and described him as “a real gentleman”.
Cartwright stabbed and slashed Mr Ashton, of Warrington, Cheshire, 18 times. He then stole a small amount of money and escaped in Mr Ashton’s car.
John Lever, prosecuting, said: “He said to police that when he had the knife in his hand, he was thinking of every person who had ever hurt him in his life but when he carried out the stabbing his mind went blank and he didn’t know what he was doing.”
The killings, the lawyer said, took place between 5.40pm and 7pm on May 14,2002.
He said: “The only account of what happened is that provided by the defendant himself.
“What he was to say was that on his return he went into the shippon [cowshed].
“Elsie Davies was there and he said she began having a go at him so he left and went back to the caravan. He then smoked a cannabis reefer to calm himself down and returned to the shippon.
“He said Elsie Davies again began shouting at him so he took out the lock knife, walked behind her and stabbed her between the shoulder blades.
“He said she began screaming for help so he put his hand over her mouth and effectively strangled her.”
Mr Lever continued: “He went to the farmhouse. The defendant said Joe Ashton had asked him where Elsie Davies was.
“He walked behind Joe Ashton, again he pulled out the knife and he stabbed him a number of times.
“The defendant admitted that Mr Ashton had tried to fight back and that had made him angry.”
Police later arrived and entered the kitchen to find Mr Ashton’s body in the blood-spattered kitchen.
An officer found Mrs Davies’s body hours later in the cow shed when he moved the silage and hay that Cartwright had used to hide her body.
Cartwright was later arrested in his home town of Wolverhampton. Charged with murder he appeared before a judge at Mold Crown Court and admitted the offences.
Sentencing Cartwright to life imprisonment the judge, Mr Justice Pitchford, said: “The destruction of the lives of two elderly people who never did any harm was a savage and wicked crime.
“It is never too late to acknowledge responsibility for even the worst crime, and that you have done.”
William Andreae-Jones, defending, said Cartwright felt “genuine remorse”.
The decision to plead guilty was not a cynical exercise in damage limitation, but an honest and genuine desire to do what was right, he said.
Crime Files Reopened
Cartwright, who had convictions for dishonesty dating back to 1994, showed no emotion as he was sentenced.
In a family statement released after the sentencing hearing Mrs Davies’ sisters said they were “searching desperately” for answers.
“It was difficult to try to understand his initial not-guilty plea and the reasons behind it.
“We were so very relieved to finally hear his plea of guilty to both murders.
“We needed to know that he will never be in a position to commit such horrific acts ever again,” the statement read.
Speaking after the murder, Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Ackerley, then head of North Wales Police CID, said: “Mrs Davies’ relatives are taking some comfort from the fact that she died in the shippon, close to her animals, which were her life.”
see-http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/crime-files-reopened-llangollen-farm-11386082
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