A burglar has been convicted of the murder of an ex-Royal Navy officer whom he ran over as he tried to steal his sports car.
Michael Samwell, 35, sustained fatal injuries after confronting thieves as they stole his black Audi S3 in the south Manchester suburb of Chorlton-cum-Hardy in April. The former navy engineer was taken to hospital for treatment but died a short time later.
The jury at Manchester crown court took three and half hours to convict Ryan Gibbons, 29, of murder on Tuesday afternoon. The defendant puffed out his cheeks and glanced towards his family as the verdict was delivered, while Samwell’s widow, Jessica, supported by her husband’s family, quietly wept.
The court had heard how Samwell had left the keys to his Audi S3 on his kitchen table before going to bed on the night of his murder. At 3am the couple was woken by bangs outside. Samwell ran downstairs and, while his wife was calling the police, she heard him shouting: “Oi, oi, no, oi, oi! Oh not the fucking car!”
When she ran outside she saw him under the wheels of the Audi with tyre marks on his chest, suggesting car had been reversed over the top of him. She told the court that she had held her husband’s hand, telling him she loved him as he lay dying from crush injuries to his chest and heart.
“When I got to him he had tyre marks across his chest,” she said giving evidence earlier this month. “I was shouting, ‘Help! Help! Somebody help me!’ I was just telling him that I loved him and holding his hand.”
Gibbons, also from Chorlton, had pleaded guilty to burglary and aggravated vehicle-taking but denied murder and manslaughter. He insists he had no idea he had reversed over Samwell, telling the jury he hadn’t seen him but had heard “screaming” and thought “something had gone under the wheel” before speeding off.
The prosecution described the claim as incredible as a CCTV camera at least 80 yards away picked up the sound of the victim shouting. “Just imagine reversing backwards over a body … Even if you were panicking, could you possibly miss it? Mike Samwell was 5’11” tall and weighed just under 14 stone,” Alistair Webster QC told Manchester crown court. He added that Samwell’s presence must have been “glaringly obvious to the person or persons taking the car”.
Raymond Davies, 21, who drove Gibbons and two other men, who have not been caught by police, to the address to steal the car, admitted burglary but was also found guilty of manslaughter. He was cleared of aggravated vehicle-taking but convicted of taking a vehicle without consent. Both defendants will be sentenced on Wednesday morning.