Man who killed his best friend in a 'frenzied attack' on Christmas Eve found guilty of murder

It’s just after 10:40am on Christmas Eve last year. Despite the heavy rain, residents of Llandaff in Cardiff are buying the last of their festive shopping and getting ready for the holidays.

23-year-old Dylan Thomas is about to kill his best friend. 

On Thursday November 21, a jury in Cardiff Crown Court found him guilty of murder.

This is the full story of a “frenzied knife attack” in broad daylight just before Christmas, which took the life of 23-year-old William Bush. 

The man “into some very weird things”

Dylan Thomas was described by his grandmother Sharon Burton as “very quiet and reserved”. She told his trial at Cardiff Crown Court he was “very young for his age and not worldly wise”. 

Dylan’s grandfather is multi-millionaire Sir Stanley Thomas, whose empire included Peter’s Pies. Dylan’s father spends his time between Jersey and Dubai, while his mother lives in Sussex. In court, Dylan’s relationship with some members of his family was characterised as distant. 

A police liaison officer who met the victim’s family reported in his notebook that William Bush’s brother, Alex, had said “most of [Dylan’s] family had deserted him”, but he denied he’d said that during the trial. 

Will and Dylan had met at school together in Brecon and the court heard they were best friends, living together in a house on Chapel Street in Llandaff. 

Will’s girlfriend, Ella Jefferies said Dylan was “into some very weird things”. He talked about the illuminati and thought he could solve the energy crisis. He wrote a letter months before the attack to American billionaire Elon Musk telling him he’d discovered a way to counteract gravity. 

That was despite the fact that Dylan did not have a driving licence, having failed his theory test on around five occasions. 

The arc of Will Bush’s life was very different from his friend and house mate. 

Mr Bush had recovered from setbacks including losing his job and was described in court as “sporty, outgoing and had lots of friends”. He had a girlfriend who he planned to move in with in the months after he was killed. 

The prosecution’s barrister, Greg Bull KC, said the fact that the two of them were good friends provides one of the mysteries of this case: why did Dylan Thomas act in the way he did? 

“Whether it was a feeling of loneliness or resentment, despite having everything in life, Dylan Thomas had achieved very little", Mr Bull continued.

"Whereas on the other side of the coin, Mr Bush, having come from very little, achieved great success in his personal life... Everything in his life was on the up where it might have been perceived in Dylan Thomas’ case, life was on the downward spiral.”

We will never know what the true motive was for this killing, if even there was one, but the court case revealed much more detail about Thomas’ mental state. 

On the night before the attack, he’d spent the evening at his grandmother’s house. Police examined his phone records during the investigation and found he had searched for methods of overdosing as well as anatomy of veins in the neck. 

The jury was shown text conversation between Thomas and Mr Bush that night and in the early hours of the 24th December. Bush was due to go home for Christmas and Thomas texted him to ask if he’d left a key. 

Thomas texted Mr Bush to ask him what time was he leaving tomorrow and then said he needed to speak to him before he went. 

“Leaving a bit later on mate”, Mr Bush replied.  

“Ok, no worries”, came the reply. 

Dylan searched for taxis near him and then other searches relating to assisted suicide. 

The jury heard during the trial from the defence barrister, Mr Orlando Pownall KC, who argued the only explanation for Mr Thomas' actions in the next hour was that his psychotic state had substantially impaired his ability to form a rational judgement or self control.

The attack 

At 10:41, Dylan and his grandmother, Sharon Burton, left her home to drive him to Chapel Street in Cardiff. Thomas said he wanted to walk the dog, Bruce, who lived at the address in Llandaff. 

Sharon said Dylan Thomas’ leg was jumping during the journey. She asked him what was wrong and why he was wound up. He said nothing.

“There was something but I don’t know what”, Sharon said. 

Thomas texted Will saying, “Ok, nearly home, stay there x”

That was the last text conversation they exchanged before Will Bush was killed. 

After dropping him off, Sharon waited in the car and next thing she knew Dylan was banging on the window covered in blood. 

“He was so distraught, he looked as white as the shirt he was wearing”. 

Various witnesses that morning gave graphic accounts of hearing screams akin to those heard in horror films when something terrible has happened. Another said they saw Mr Bush’s body with dozens of serious wounds to his neck and chest on the ground outside the house.

The jury heard that the forensic evidence gathered during the investigation illustrates Thomas’ movements in the house. It’s believed he took at least one knife from the kitchen up the stairs to the bedroom where Mr Bush was relaxing. 

He stabbed him there and Bush tried to escape, running down the stairs in the three story house down to the patio at the back of the house. Thomas pursued him, stabbing him repeatedly at various stages of Bush’s attempt to escape. 

The post mortem was carried out by forensic pathologist, Dr Richard Jones, in the days following the attack. William Bush was found with 37 stab wounds, plus other numerous knife injuries across his upper body. 21 of the stab wounds were sustained to the 23-year-old’s neck. 

The prosecution said it was no coincidence that Thomas had researched the anatomy of veins in the neck just hours before the attack. 

The investigation 

During the seven day trial,  two expert psychologists gave evidence to the court. Their experience, qualifications and impartiality were unchallenged.

Dr Panchu Xavier, a consultant forensic psychiatrist at Ashworth High Secure Hospital, said Thomas was psychotically unwell before the incident but that might not have been immediately obvious to non professionals. 

Following further information, another psychiatrist, Dr Dilum Jayawickrama changed his mind to agree with Dr Xavier that Thomas was suffering from psychosis and schizophrenia before the incident. 

The jury heard of an incident where Thomas said he’s heard a very loud and prolonged scream by an escalator in Primark, even though no one else had heard it. Dr Xavier said this was an example of an auditory hallucination. 

Another incident took place just weeks before the attack in London. Thomas climbed a 14 foot wall at Buckingham Palace where he was met by police armed with firearms and tasers.   

He told police he wanted to investigate the energy field between the palace and Cleopatra’s Needle, another landmark in the city. 

After he was arrested, he asked police if he could be given a guided tour, since he was already there. 

He also claimed that the officers who'd arrested him could "hear his thoughts", something Dr Xavier was a "common psychotic belief."

With all the clinical evidence in front of them as well as independent analyses of his condition themselves, both experts agreed that Dylan was driven by psychosis in the months before the attack. 

However, there was a difference between the views of the expert psychologists.

Dr Jayawickrama said he agreed with Dr Xavier that the defendant was suffering from an "abnormality of mental function caused by schizophrenic illness", but he was unable to give a "psychotic explanation" for what he'd done to Mr Bush.

Thomas told police that he believed Will Bush was going to attack or kill Thomas and that he had only stabbed him in self defence. There was no evidence found to support this claim, but the experts said these “fanciful delusions” are a hallmark of a psychotic state. 

On Thursday, November 21, a jury of 10 men and two women came to a verdict on which they all agreed.

The court clerk asked the jury foreman to stand. "On count one, how do you find the defendant?", she said.

The foreman paused as he appeared to stabilise himself to deliver the jury's unanimous verdict.

"Guilty", he declared.

There were quiet cries from members of Mr Bush's family as the Judge Lady Justice Karen Steyn stated that sentencing would take place at a later date, but reiterated that there is only one sentence that can be passed for murder, which is life imprisonment.