Jail for 'arrogant' Barnsley dad who ran over and killed handyman who offered to mow his mum's lawn
“He was doing nothing but going to neighbours on his mum’s estate trying to get work by cutting grass”
A Barnsley dad who ran over and killed a handyman after setting out to “teach him a lesson” for knocking on his mum’s door has been jailed for nine years.
Liam Green, aged 45, died in an incident on Rose Tree Avenue, Cudworth, on April 3, 2026.
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He was deliberately run over by Mark Wigley, 60, who set out with his daughter Sarah Wigley, 39, and his brother-in-law Neil Shaw, 54 - all of Royston Road, Cudworth - to look for Liam and settle a grudge they held.
Although only Mark Wigley was found guilty of manslaughter by a jury at Sheffield Crown Court on Thursday (October 29), a judge slammed the “breath-taking arrogance” of him and his family for thinking they were free to find and mete out violence on others.
“Liam Green's mother accepts that her son was no angel,” His Honour Judge Richard Reeds told Wigley in sentencing. “But one thing the evidence in this case clearly demonstrates is that, regardless what he might have done in the past, on this occasion he was doing nothing but going to neighbours on his mum’s estate trying to get work by cutting grass.
“It is a mark of the breath-taking arrogance that you, your daughter and your family members showed [...] that you clearly made no enquiry at all why he was calling at those bungalows, and just assumed he was a drug user pestering older people for money.
“He was not, but that didn’t stop you.”
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The court heard Liam called at elderly Louise Jean Wigley’s home, where he was “polite and respectful” in asking for work.
However, a screenshot of Liam taken on her Ring doorbell camera was shared with family by instant messaging, leading the Wigleys to set out and “teach him a lesson.”
All three defendants even confronted Liam’s mother Lori Hilton, with Mark Wigley arriving in his car and shouting: “I’m going to f***ing kill your son for what he’s done.”
The judge said: “You arrived full of aggression and arrogance.
“His mother told you what he was doing, and you dismissed her account because you thought you knew better than she did what her son was doing.”
When they found Liam, Mark Wigley assaulted the 45-year-old and slammed him against a van.
Minutes later the three went to leave - but, at that moment, Liam emerged carrying a metal table leg and confronted the family again, shouting “come on then.”
“In that moment, you made the decision to drive into him,” the judge told Wigley.
Lori Hilton, who lived on Rose Tree Avenue, emerged to find her son lying fatally injured under Wigley’s white VW Touareg, and held his hand as he died.
At the end of a three-week trial, a jury convicted Mark Wigley of manslaughter for deliberately driving into the 45-year-old.
“That reaction does not come close to excusing what you did,” said the judge.
“You had the time and space to drive around him and get away if you chose to do so. You chose the opposite.
“Your actions caused the death of a much-loved son, father, brother.
“In her twilight years, you have deprived Lori Hilton of her son. She will likely never come to terms with what happened.
“You may not be an aggressive person, but on this occasion, you were.
“You have brought all this upon yourself.”
Mark Wigley was jailed for nine years.