Dope-smoking ex-boyfriend strangled estranged lover and her seven-month-old baby - then announced it on Facebook
- Wesley Williams, 29, jailed for life with a minimum of 29 years
- Used a ligature to carry out 'chilling, casual and calculated' killings of Yvonne and Harrison Walsh, who were found dead in their beds
- Judge described Williams as 'clearly evil and dangerous beyond measure'
- 'Planned' to propose before Ms Walsh ended their relationship
By ANDY DOLAN PUBLISHED: 17:38 GMT, 11 December 2013 | UPDATED: 00:38 GMT, 12 December 2013
A killer strangled his former partner and her seven-month-old baby after the graduate broke up with him – then wrote about his crimes on Facebook.Described by a judge yesterday as ‘clearly evil’, Wesley Williams posted a message on the social networking site after he carried out the double murder saying: ‘Sometimes we just have to do things we shouldn’t.’He also wrote ‘I am sorry it had to come to this’ on his victim’s Facebook page, and changed his relationship status to ‘single’.
Wesley Williams, 28, pictured left, has been jailed for life for the double murder of his ex-partner Yvonne Walsh, pictured right, and her seven-month-old baby Harrison
Double murder: Yvonne Walsh, pictured with seven-month-old Harrison, had split up with Williams just two days before he killed her and her son
Williams was ordered to serve a minimum of 29 years of a life sentence for the ‘chilling, casual and calculated’ killings of Yvonne Walsh and her son Harrison.
Mr Justice MacDuff branded the 29-year-old as a man ‘dangerous beyond measure’ who had ‘executed’ a defenceless infant and his mother. He then ordered guards to ‘take this evil man down’. Prosecutors said the pair’s relationship crumbled after 25-year- old Miss Walsh spurned Williams’s proposal of marriage. He had been released from prison on licence four months before the murders after serving a five-year term for attacking his sister’s ex-partner with a hammer. But the licence had expired by the time he killed the mother and son. Williams pleaded guilty last week at Birmingham Crown Court to murdering the pair.
Williams used a ligature to carry out the 'chilling, casual and calculated' killings of Yvonne and Harrison Walsh
After his sentencing yesterday, reporting restrictions barring any mention of his link with a former girlfriend who murdered her two-year-old son were lifted. Rebecca Shuttleworth, 25, was jailed for life in June at the same court after battering to death her son Keanu Williams, under the noses of Birmingham social workers.
University graduate Yvonne Walsh, 25, worked at a care home for vulnerable adults in Birmingham
She had given the child her then boyfriend’s surname even though he was not the biological father. Yesterday the court heard how Miss Walsh, a care home manager, was found dead in her bed at Billesley, two days after she was last seen alive. Her son’s body was found in his cot beside her. Pathologists were unable to determine who was killed first. The social care graduate’s relationship with Williams began two months before she died on May 31. She was last known to be alive at 8.10pm that evening – but by 8.54pm Williams was posting on Facebook. By then, police believe the mother and son were dead.
Friends told police unemployed Williams was ‘joking, laughing and smiling’ later that evening as he played computer games. He was also caught on CCTV doing ‘high-fives’ with a friend in a fast-food outlet and boasted on Facebook of smoking cannabis later that night. Williams was arrested two days later at a flat in Oldbury, West Midlands after he sent police a text message confessing to the murders. It read: ‘I have killed my girlfriend. Her name is Yvonne Walsh and she’s upstairs in the bedroom.
‘I’m not there, what should I do? You can’t phone me only text me.’ Rajiv Menon QC, defending, admitted there could be ‘no mitigation for these horrific and senseless murders’. The judge told Williams: ‘The casual way in which you committed these killings was chilling. Your subsequent behaviour demonstrates how unconcerned you were at what you had done.’ Miss Walsh also had a three-year-old daughter from another relationship who was staying with her father when Williams struck.
Tragedy: Floral tributes placed outside the home of Yvonne Walsh in Chells Grove, Billesley, Birmingham, after she was found dead with her baby son
Williams’s mother, Christine Logan, 56, from Swansea, said she ‘felt sick’ when she found her son had been arrested.
The mother-of-five said she had spoken to him that night after he left ‘worrying’ messages on Facebook.
‘I said to him, “What have you done now?” He replied, “Nothing, just smoking weed”. I said, “OK, have a good night.” He said, “I will”.’
A killer strangled his former partner and her seven-month-old baby after the graduate broke up with him – then wrote about his crimes on Facebook.Described by a judge yesterday as ‘clearly evil’, Wesley Williams posted a message on the social networking site after he carried out the double murder saying: ‘Sometimes we just have to do things we shouldn’t.’He also wrote ‘I am sorry it had to come to this’ on his victim’s Facebook page, and changed his relationship status to ‘single’.
Wesley Williams, 28, pictured left, has been jailed for life for the double murder of his ex-partner Yvonne Walsh, pictured right, and her seven-month-old baby Harrison
Double murder: Yvonne Walsh, pictured with seven-month-old Harrison, had split up with Williams just two days before he killed her and her son
Williams was ordered to serve a minimum of 29 years of a life sentence for the ‘chilling, casual and calculated’ killings of Yvonne Walsh and her son Harrison.
Mr Justice MacDuff branded the 29-year-old as a man ‘dangerous beyond measure’ who had ‘executed’ a defenceless infant and his mother. He then ordered guards to ‘take this evil man down’. Prosecutors said the pair’s relationship crumbled after 25-year- old Miss Walsh spurned Williams’s proposal of marriage. He had been released from prison on licence four months before the murders after serving a five-year term for attacking his sister’s ex-partner with a hammer. But the licence had expired by the time he killed the mother and son. Williams pleaded guilty last week at Birmingham Crown Court to murdering the pair.
Williams used a ligature to carry out the 'chilling, casual and calculated' killings of Yvonne and Harrison Walsh
After his sentencing yesterday, reporting restrictions barring any mention of his link with a former girlfriend who murdered her two-year-old son were lifted. Rebecca Shuttleworth, 25, was jailed for life in June at the same court after battering to death her son Keanu Williams, under the noses of Birmingham social workers.
University graduate Yvonne Walsh, 25, worked at a care home for vulnerable adults in Birmingham
She had given the child her then boyfriend’s surname even though he was not the biological father. Yesterday the court heard how Miss Walsh, a care home manager, was found dead in her bed at Billesley, two days after she was last seen alive. Her son’s body was found in his cot beside her. Pathologists were unable to determine who was killed first. The social care graduate’s relationship with Williams began two months before she died on May 31. She was last known to be alive at 8.10pm that evening – but by 8.54pm Williams was posting on Facebook. By then, police believe the mother and son were dead.
Friends told police unemployed Williams was ‘joking, laughing and smiling’ later that evening as he played computer games. He was also caught on CCTV doing ‘high-fives’ with a friend in a fast-food outlet and boasted on Facebook of smoking cannabis later that night. Williams was arrested two days later at a flat in Oldbury, West Midlands after he sent police a text message confessing to the murders. It read: ‘I have killed my girlfriend. Her name is Yvonne Walsh and she’s upstairs in the bedroom.
‘I’m not there, what should I do? You can’t phone me only text me.’ Rajiv Menon QC, defending, admitted there could be ‘no mitigation for these horrific and senseless murders’. The judge told Williams: ‘The casual way in which you committed these killings was chilling. Your subsequent behaviour demonstrates how unconcerned you were at what you had done.’ Miss Walsh also had a three-year-old daughter from another relationship who was staying with her father when Williams struck.
Tragedy: Floral tributes placed outside the home of Yvonne Walsh in Chells Grove, Billesley, Birmingham, after she was found dead with her baby son
Williams’s mother, Christine Logan, 56, from Swansea, said she ‘felt sick’ when she found her son had been arrested.
The mother-of-five said she had spoken to him that night after he left ‘worrying’ messages on Facebook.
‘I said to him, “What have you done now?” He replied, “Nothing, just smoking weed”. I said, “OK, have a good night.” He said, “I will”.’
