Teenage Rastrick killers get 20 years - victim accused of sex attack charges

Mar 18 2010 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Defending Gledhill, counsel Maura McGowan QC said her client had been ‘besotted’ with Hardy.

Ms McGowan said he had attacked Mr Greer after seeing the deceased put his hands around his girlfriend.

But sentencing the pair, William Blair QC said: “The deceased was particularly vulnerable because of his disability. He could not possibly have put up any meaningful resistance.

“Whatever happened in the past, there was not the slightest excuse for going into John Greer’s house and taking the law into your own hands with disastrous results.”

Following the hearing Det Supt Dave Pervin, of West Yorkshire Police’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, said: “This was a case where two teenagers fuelled with alcohol killed 60-year-old John Greer – a man who was unwell, suffering a terminal illness and unable to defend himself.

“Having killed him, Gledhill and Hardy then stole John Greer’s property, which they were selling a matter of hours later.

“The skills of the forensic scientist, Gillian Leake, linked the two defendants to the murder through victim DNA on their clothing.

“More significantly, this is a case which was detected through information provided by the community and the individual witnesses who had the courage to approach local Neighbourhood Policing Team officers and tell them what they knew about Gledhill and Hardy’s involvement.”