By Andrew Young-
An evil brute who murdered a Bradford father-of-three by shooting him in the face at point-blank range has been jailed for life.
Tyron Charles, 29, was killed in a shipping container on land at a smallholding off Foster Park View, Denholme on September 6 last year. The body of the father of three was found in a bog in Oxenhope Lane on 11 October last year by police. He had been reported missing five weeks earlier.
His killer, James Sutcliffe, also 29, like his victim, was convicted of murder by a jury at Bradford Crown Court yesterday. He was told by Justice Lavender that he must serve a minimum of 31 years before being considered for release.
AD: Capeesh Restaurant
James Sutcliffe was also found guilty of conspiring to pervert the course of justice with his parents, Kevin and Janet Sutcliffe, both aged 60 and 62 respectively. His two parents were each jailed for two years. Sutcliffe, of Hill Crest Road in Denholme, also received a four-year concurrent sentence for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice after he entered into a plan with his parents (62-year-old Janet and 61-year-old Kevin Sutcliffe, also of Hill Crest Road, Denholme) to dispose of the body.
The court heard how Sutcliffe shot Mr Charles in a shipping container in an allotment last September after Mr Charles and an acquaintance called Adrian Williams approached him about a debt of around £800.He then took the body in his car to Nab Water Lane and dumped it in a bog.
After the murder, Sutcliffe drove onto the moors near Oxenhope, and dumped the corpse over a wall into a bog. The jury heard that the body was not discovered until police secretly recorded conversations between James Sutcliffe and his parents as they visited him in prison.
AD: Oysterian Sea Food Restaurant And Bar
The court was heard that, using details given by James Sutcliffe during a conversation on October 10, police were able to trace the route he took to dispose of the body, and remains of Mr Charles were found in an area of moorland off Nab Water Lane on October 11.
The murderers parents, Kevin and Janet Sutcliffe, then made plans to move the body, but were denied the chance to do so after it was found by police.
GRUESOME
Delivering his verdict, Justice Lavender said: “James Sutcliffe, you shot and killed Tyron Charles. You shot him with a shotgun at a range of 50 to 100cm. You shot him in the face. The shot entered through and around his right eye. It made a hole in his skull around his eye-socket, which is a gruesome sight.
You ended the life of a 29 year-old man. He was a son, he was a brother, and he was a father to three children. You caused lifelong misery to his parents and to his other relatives and loved ones.”
The judge added that after shooting Mr Charles, James Sutcliffe had added to the family’s distress by robbing the corpse, later “joking” with his parents about spending the money.
Justice Lavender said of James Sutcliffe: “When his (Mr Charles’s) friends and family were desperate to know what had become of him, you pretended you knew nothing of his whereabouts. You claimed he had been alive when you last saw him.
“You were arrested by the police and you lied repeatedly to them. You even had the gall to complain that they were not doing their job properly and needed to go and find the proper murderers.”
The judge said that the basis for the conspiracy charge was Kevin and Janet’s Sutcliffe’s agreement to help their son by moving or disposing of the body, possibly by burning it.
He said that by the time police used details from the bugged conversations to locate the body, it had already been in the bog for five weeks.
The judge told James Sutcliffe: “You had left it there to rot. That is what you wanted to happen, in order to destroy any evidence linking you to his death.
“When it was located, the body had begun to decompose and Tyron Charles’s head, in particular, was infested with maggots. His own mother could not identify him, and she had to grieve over a closed coffin.
“When you told your parents you had shot Tyron Charles, you boasted about it. You said: ‘Janet, I blew his f**king head off, it was f**king ace.’”
The judge told James Sutcliffe that he accepted the killing had not been planned or pre-meditated, but said: “I am sure that, when you held the shotgun that close to Tyron Charles’ face and pulled the trigger, you intended to kill him.
“You have shown no remorse for what you did. Instead, you have denied it and done everything you could to conceal it.”
Addressing Sutcliffe’s parents, Kevin and Janet Williams, Justice Lavender said: “This was a conspiracy whose purpose was to help prevent a murderer from being convicted.
“I bear in mind that you did not carry out your conspiracy, although that was only because the police found the body before you could move it.
“I accept you were trying to help your son after receiving the devastating news that he had shotthat he had shot someone. But family affection is no justification for a criminal conspiracy.” The news is awful, and murders like this rarely attach any weight to why money was owed to the killer. However, there is still a lesson to be learnt that people should avoid being in so much debt. It can end fatally wrong.
AD: Heritage And Restaurant Lounge Bar