Killed Because He Didn’t Have Enough Valuables: Gipsy Burglars Jailed for Life After Bludgeoning Farmer to Death With a Crowbar

John Stevens
Daily Mail
July 26, 2013

  • Pensioner Llywelyn Thomas was beaten to death in Cambridgeshire
  • He was home watching Strictly Come Dancing when burglars broke in
  • Floors and doorways were covered in the retired farmer’s blood

Two gipsies who beat a farmer to death with a crowbar after they found little worth stealing at his home have been jailed for life.

Frankie Parker, 26, and his uncle, Gary Smith, 21, struck pensioner Llywelyn Thomas over the head and stamped on him during a raid at his £500,000 home in Chittering, Cambridgeshire.

The pair, who were staying at a nearby travellers’ site, fled with ornamental eggs, a wallet, watches and a Rover 75, part of Mr Thomas’s classic car collection.

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Police search: The camp in Chesterton, where the gipsy burglars were living.

But they dumped the car four miles away after realising it could not go faster than 20mph.

Yesterday Smith laughed and smirked throughout proceedings as he and Parker were jailed for life at Cambridge Crown Court.

During the 17-day trial the court heard that the men – described by police as career criminals – could not resist boasting to other members of the travelling community about what they had done.

Witnesses said Parker bragged about ‘smashing an old man’s face right in’ and leaving it ‘twisted’.

The pair had forced their way in to the converted chapel as widower Mr Thomas watched Strictly Come Dancing on December 17, 2011.

They restrained him and searched his home for valuables.

Afterwards they ‘set about a savage beating’, said Karim Khalil, prosecuting.

‘He did not stand a chance.’

The attack was so ferocious he would have died within minutes.

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Viciously attacked: Mr Thomas died within minutes after being so savagely beaten.

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