Teen drug dealer who stabbed Sheffield dad Lewis Bagshaw thought he was 'untouchable'

Emar Wiley, of no fixed address, was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court on Monday (19 July) after a jury found him guilty of murdering 21-year-old Bagshaw on 21 July 2019.

He will serve a minimum life sentence of 16 years, minus the time he has already spent on remand. Sentences of five and a half years for GBH and three years for possession with intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine will be served concurrently.

Mr Bagshaw, who had a one-year-old son Carter with his girlfriend of five years Olivia Keeley, was chased and then stabbed twice in the chest “with severe force”, according to a post-mortem report, before he was found by residents on Piper Crescent, near the Southey Green area of Sheffield.

A post-mortem examination found he died from a 13cm-deep stab wound to his heart and a 12cm-deep stab wound to his lung, both of which pierced bones.

In a victim impact statement, Olivia said: “I can’t bear the thought of one day having to tell our son why and how his dad died. What child should have to live with knowing their father was taken from them in such an inhumane, vile way.

"The nightmares I have about what happened to Lew [sic] I can’t even say out loud, they haunt me in my waking hours.”

Olivia and Lewis’ grandmother Pauline were praised for their “strength and dignity” when listening to “harrowing evidence” throughout the trial by the judge.

Sentencing, Mr Justice Nicklin told Wiley: “The events leading up to the stabbing do not supply any motive for you to want to kill Lewis. In many ways, that makes his killing all the more senseless.

"Your involvement in the criminal enterprise of drugs has led to you becoming desensitised to violence.”

Nicholas Campbell QC, the prosecutor, said it was “the world of illegal drug trafficking which forms the backdrop for the violence at the heart of this case.”

Bagshaw – who was not involved in the supply of drugs - was stabbed after a dispute arose following an assault on his father Daniel Cutts in May 2019 by the-then 16-year-old and an allegedly another man over a drugs dispute. The assault, which left Cutts with a fractured skull, had “repercussions”, Justice Nicklin said.

He added: “Naturally, he [Lewis] was very angry about this.”

Despite months passing without incident the pair crossed paths twice on Piper Crescent on 21 July. Having confronted Wiley on the road earlier in the day and shouted at him to get out of the car he was travelling in, Bagshaw was chased and stabbed twice after the vehicles they were travelling in met later that evening at around 9.30pm.

Mr Justice Nicklin said: “You felt Lewis had ‘disrespected’ you. You decided that he could not be allowed to get away with speaking and acting towards you in the way that he did.”

Mr Justice Nicklin said Wiley “came from a stable home” and was “criminally exploited from a young age”. At 16, he was operating a “significant drugs operation” in Southey Green and told a probation officer he sold £7,500 worth of drugs per week.

Mr Justice Nicklin added: “You were a willing, even eager, participant in the drugs business you were growing. Nevertheless, your youth and naivety was exploited by others.

"The motivation largely financial, but you enjoyed the status that came with being a drug dealer [...] you told the jury that you were untouchable.”

A search of Wiley’s house in the days following the murder found three mobile phones, 203 wraps of cocaine, 21 wraps of heroin as well as £620 in cash and a lock knife. The court heard how he began smoking cannabis from the age of 13 or 14 before being recruited by “bigger people” to sell drugs.

A psychological assessment found he has ADHD and PTSD for a traumatic incident when he was 13.

Mr Justice Nicklin said: “The most significant mitigating factor is that I am not sure you intended to kill Lewis Bagshaw. Although the jury were rightly satisfied that you intended to cause really serious harm by stabbing Lewis, I cannot be sure that your intention was to kill.”

The murder weapon has never been found.

Reporting restrictions that prevented Wiley from being named due to his age were lifted by Mr Justice Nicklin following an application from The Star which argued it was in the public interest for the teenager to be named.