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Ex-butcher will die in prison after dismembering and hiding man's body in concrete

WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: Farmer and ex-butcher Christopher Wright, 73, shot a man twice before dismembering his body and trying to conceal it in a concrete-filled barrel - he has now been jailed

[Christopher Wright was jailed for the gruesome crime]

Christopher Wright has been jailed for dismembering and hiding a man's body in cement (Image: yoRKSHIRE LIVE/MEN MEDIA)

A former butcher who dismembered his victim then hid the body in a concrete-filled barrel was told "few ordinary people would have the stomach" to carry out such a crime.

Farmer Christopher Wright, 73, been jailed for at least 35 years after he was convicted last month of murdering Richard Dyson, 55, who disappeared in 2019, then concealing the body for six years.

Mr Dyson who lived in his car on Wrights land at Hoyland, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, was reported missing by his daughter. The police missing persons inquiry became a murder investigation and last year officers found the concealed body in a barrel on a trailer.

[Richard Dyson ]

The body of Richard Dyson was concealed in a concrete-filled barrel for six years(Image: yoRKSHIRE LIVE/MEN MEDIA)

Mr Dyson did odd jobs for the farmer but the pair fell out after Wright, an antique firearms collector, suspected him of stealing from him and selling on possessions.

Wright shot him in the arm and chest and, over the following days, he dismembered him, bought cement from a builders merchant then concealed the body parts in a blue barrel.

Wright then put the barrel in a trailer and persuaded an innocent and unwitting neighbour to store the vehicle.

Wrights childhood friend Karl Schwalbe, 72, was convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice after helping to conceal the crime. He was jailed for three years.

[The trailer where the body of Richard Dyson was found]

The trailer where the barrel containing the body of Richard Dyson was found(Image: South Yorkshire Police/PA Wire)

Mr Justice Cotter, sitting at Sheffield Crown Court, said Wright must serve life with a minimum term of 35 years less time on remand, and was likely to die in prison.

Speaking of what Wright did to his victim, the 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.

In her victims statement, Mr Dysons daughter Bethany Dainty spoke of not knowing what had happened to her father for so long.

She said: I couldnt grieve because I did not know the truth.

After they were questioned by detectives on one occasion, Wright and Schwalbe were recorded by cameras in a police car park discussing CCTV that officers had gathered.

And when police were searching his property, Wright was filmed in a hotel praying for absolution from God and that his weapons would not be found.

Christopher Dunn, for Schwalbe, said it was an error of Biblical proportions not to tell the police what happened.

Wright was convicted of murder, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, preventing a lawful burial as well as firearms offences.

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