Dad found guilty of killing Barnsley handiman who asked to mow his elderly mum's lawn for £7.50
A judge called the evidence for manslaughter “abundant and clear”
A dad ran over and killed a Barnsley handiman after setting out to “teach him a lesson” for offering to mow his elderly mother’s lawn, a jury has ruled.
Liam Green, aged 45, died in an incident on Rose Tree Avenue, Cudworth, on April 3, 2026.
.jpeg?crop=3:2,smart&trim=&width=640&quality=65)
He was 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.
During a three-week-long trial, Sheffield Crown Court heard the family meant to “teach him a lesson” after he offered to mow elderly Louise Jean Wigley’s lawn for £7.50.
This upset the Wigleys, who labelled Liam’s bid to make a bit of cash from handiwork as “badgering old ladies for money”.
After tracking him down over the course of half an hour, the family confronted Liam in a violent scuffle, culminating in Mark Wigley running over and fatally injuring the 45-year-old in his white Volkswagen Touareg. Liam died at the scene.
Mark Wigley denied murder and claimed Liam’s death was an accident while swerving.
Today, October 27, a jury found the 60-year-old not guilty of murder, but convicted him of manslaughter.
His Honour Judge Graham Reeds KC said: “You have been convicted of manslaughter, on what I consider to be abundant and clear evidence.
“I will pass sentence upon you on Thursday. The sentence will be one of immediate imprisonment.”
The jury found Sarah Wigley and Mark Shaw not guilty of either murder or manslaughter.
During the trial, the court heard from Liam’s mother, Lori Hilton, who was confronted by all three defendants asking where her son was.
This included Mark Wigley, who pulled up alongside Lori on the street and said: “I’m going to f***ing kill your son for what he’d done.”
A tearful Mrs Hilton later told police: “I said, ‘please don’t beat him up, please don’t kill him, I’m his mum,’ and he said ‘he’s f***ing dead, and if he goes to prison I’ll get somebody to kill him in prison’.
“He was so cocky,” she wept.
She later emerged from her home on Rose Tree Avenue after hearing shouting, only to see Liam lying fatally injured underneath Mark Wigley’s car.
“I screamed, ‘you’ve f***ing killed him’,” Mrs Hilton told police in a video interview.
“I ran across the road.
“I held Liam’s hand.”
“He was only going around asking if he could cut grass,” said the widower.
The court heard Liam had asked his mother earlier that day if she thought it was a good idea to knock on doors and ask to cut grass for £7.50.
“But unfortunately, one of the houses he knocked on was the home belonging to Louise Jean Wigley, the Wigley family’s grandmother,” prosecutor Tom Storey KC told the jury.
“For whatever reason, the defendants took exception to his approach and set off to the estate where Liam Green lived, and their intent was to make him leave their grandmother alone and to teach him a lesson.”
The Wigley family exchanged screenshots of Liam taken on Jean’s Ring doorbell camera.
It is suggested it was not the first time Liam had asked for odd jobs in the area, with messages between family members referring to him as a “smack head” who “needs throttling”.
Mark Wigley will be sentenced on Thursday, October 29.