Ex-butcher & the man who helped him cover up body in barrel murder in Barnsley are sentenced
The pair were sentenced a few moments ago
A weapons fanatic who shot his lodger dead and recruited his best friend to help him cover up the murder for years have both been jailed for their roles in the shocking crime.
The family of 55-year-old Richard Dyson endured an agonizing, six-year wait for answers, after he disappeared without a trace in November 2019.
Christopher Wright watched on as the search for Richard continued, knowing he had murdered and dismembered the beloved dad, before hiding his remains in a concrete-filled barrel on neighbouring farmland in Hoyland, Barnsley.
Richard had lodged on Wright’s farmland on Sheffield Road, Hoyland, living in three of his own cars, for several years before the killing.
In a Sheffield Crown Court hearing today, Wright was sentenced for Richard’s murder.
The judge, Mr Justice Cotter KC, jailed Wright, aged 73, for life, and told him he was likely to die behind bars after fixing a minimum term at 35 years, minus the time he has spent on remand.
He told Wright: “You are very unlikely indeed to serve out your minimum term.”
“You dismembered Richard Dyson, concealed it in a barrel filled with concrete, and hid it in a locked trailer for almost six years,” Mr Justice Cotter continued.
Both Wright and Karl Schwalbe, Wright’s co-accused, and childhood best friend were convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Schwalbe drove to Wright’s home on the night Richard was killed, and helped him cover up what prosecutors dubbed the “body in the barrel” murder.
Mr Justice Cotter sentenced Schwalbe, of Dike Hill, Harley, Rotherham, to three years’ custody a few moments ago.
“You were prepared to help your friend despite what he had done,” Mr Justice Cotter said of Schwalbe’s role.
Mr Justice Cotter said the motive for the murder may have been Wright’s belief that Richard had stolen antique weapons, and in doing so, had “bitten the hand” that fed him.
Jurors found the two defendants unanimously guilty of the charges they faced at the conclusion of a seven-week trial last week.
For Wright, that also included charges of preventing a lawful burial and multiple weapons charges.
“You have an alarming obsession with weapons. Your house was littered with weapons capable of causing injury,” Mr Justice Cotter said.
Richard’s daughter, Bethany Dainty, said that not knowing what had happened to her dad led to her life becoming a “living nightmare” for six years.
“Every single day I woke up with the same painful questions in my mind: Is my dad alive? Is he hurt? Is he cold?
“Is he somewhere waiting to be found? Or is he dead?
“Those thoughts tortured me every day and every night. There was never any peace.
“I could not grieve because I did not know the truth, but I also could not move forward because I knew deep down something terrible had happened,” Bethany said in a statement to the court.
She described how her “entire life shattered all over again” when Richard’s remains were finally found in July 2025.
Two jurors returned to see Wright and Schwalbe sentenced this morning.