Gwynedd man denies murdering his own father

Tony Thomas, 45, of Penrhyn Isaf, Minffordd, Penrhyndeudraeth, was accused of killing Dafydd Thomas, 65, at the property on March 25, 2021.

At Mold Crown Court yesterday (January 16), Thomas pleaded not guilty to two charges; the murder and manslaughter of his father.

Today, the court heard how the relationship between Thomas and his father had been deteriorating for some time prior to his death.

He had been in dispute with him regarding the ownership of his home and the keeping of pigs.

Prosecuting, Gordon Cole KC said that the evidence that Thomas was responsible for his father’s death was both “overwhelming” and “entirely consistent with an attack during which the defendant intended really serious harm”.

Cole told the court of how Dafydd Thomas died from effects of fatal injuries sustained from his son’s attacks.

These, Cole said, were delivered by way of Thomas pulling his father out of his vehicle and knocking him to the floor, before he “kicked and stamped on him” with steel toe cap wellington boots.

Thomas accepts inflicting unlawful violence on his father, Cole added, but denies responsibility for his death.

His father had not long retired, having been a director of Gwynedd Environmental Waste Services Limited, and had turned more of his attention towards farming.

Cole said that Thomas had suffered from mental health difficulties since studying at the University of Leeds, had no paid employment at the time of his father’s death, and “lived a reclusive life”.

He was living in one section of a farmhouse, Penrhyn Isaf, having been there for some years, with his cousin and their partner living in the other.

Dafydd Thomas lived “about 500 yards away” from his son, with his wife Elizabeth (Thomas’ stepmother), daughter Elin (Thomas’ stepsister), and Elin’s young son.

Both houses and the farmland surrounding them, Cole said, were owned by Dafydd Thomas.

Cole said: “It seems, over time, the defendant believed he had some sort of claim to the house he was living in, and the land around that property.

“But the reality is, the land, farm and property were all owned by his father, who allowed the defendant to live in his house rent-free.

“On March 25, it seems some grievance the defendant felt he had to his father seemed to centre around the keeping of pigs.

“Dafydd Thomas had devoted his life to building up his business. He had time on his hands since retirement, and had started putting plans into taking a more hands-on approach to running a farm.

“He intended to keep pigs, but this also seems to have angered the defendant.”

Between 12-12.30pm on March 25, 2021, Dafydd and Elizabeth Thomas were having lunch; after which Dafydd went to the farmland to carry out work on some pig housing he was building.

Data provided to the court showed that, at 12.44pm, Thomas accessed an online registration service for recording pig movements, before making three phone calls in quick succession.

Mrs Thomas was still at her house when her husband went off to a nearby builders merchants to buy the items he required to allow him to carry on the work he wanted to complete.

She recalls being aware that her husband was outside working, and that soon after 1pm, she saw Thomas at her house, opening the porch door asking where his father was, and “something to do with pigs”.

Thomas then left to see if his father was, as Mrs Thomas had said, in the shed, before soon returning, saying that he was not there.

Mrs Thomas then phoned her husband at 1.09pm, when he told her he was on his way back home and would return to the property within a few minutes.

She then continued making cakes and peeling vegetables in the kitchen, but soon became concerned that he had not arrived home.

After going to look for him, she used a “find my phone” feature on her own mobile at 1.24pm and 1.26pm, where she discovered that her husband’s phone was down the road from their house.

She made her way down to the location by car, and while looking for her husband, she saw Thomas, who was walking from where she was heading in the direction of his own home.

Mrs Thomas found her husband lying on his back, bleeding from “terrible facial injuries”, his reading glasses clutched in his right hand.

At 1.30pm, she made a 999 call, and while emergency services quickly arrived, Dafydd Thomas was pronounced dead at the scene.

All of his nasal bones were fractured, as were other facial bones, while six ribs on the right of his body had been fractured.

A provisional cause of death was given as inhalation of blood due to severe blunt trauma facial injuries, and Thomas was arrested at roughly 3.30pm that day.

When police arrived, Thomas was seen outside his house, carrying a bag containing wet clothing which he had confirmed he’d just washed and was taking to dry.

At the time of his arrest, he was wearing lace-up boots and a light brown all-in-one boiler suit.

Crime scene investigators found the boots Thomas had been wearing at time of the assault were in his kitchen, while his father’s blood was found on the outside surfaces of both boots.

The Toyota pickup truck Dafydd Thomas had been driving also had blood on the outside of it.

The positioning of his blood allowed forensic examiners to effectively establish that he had initially been assaulted while in an upright position, but then, having fallen to floor, sustained an attack which continued by way of kicks and blows which caused blood splattering onto the vehicle.

Cole said: “It is overwhelming that he is the person responsible for that killing.”

Mrs Thomas was interviewed by officers in Welsh at Barmouth Police Station at 8.05pm on the day of her husband’s death.

Video extracts from the interview were shown to the court, with the aid of a translator.

Mrs Thomas said that, despite having rented land he owned to a farmer, her husband had told the farmer he planned to slowly take it back from him following his retirement.

She added: “A fortnight ago, we got more cattle, and the pigs were coming. Tony wasn’t happy about things like that at all.

“The porch door opened. He was shouting, asking where Dafydd was. Before I could answer him, he asked if I know anything about the pig movement, whatever that was.”

She then recalled Thomas starting at her through her kitchen window for a number of seconds.

Mrs Thomas admitted that her stepson had also made her feel nervous on previous occasions.

She added: “He wasn’t wild. He had that look in his eyes, but he wasn’t himself. I’ve seen him coming down, shouting furiously, but he wasn’t like that.

“I remember screaming on the phone to tell them (emergency services) to hurry, petrified Tony would come.”

Mrs Thomas also told police that Thomas suffered from bipolar disorder, a condition which had got “dreadfully worse” in the last couple of years, but for which she was unsure if he was on medication.

Mrs Thomas said she was unsure as to how long her stepson had lived at Penrhyn Isaf, but had previously been “living in the wild, then in a caravan, and then a cottage”.

Her husband, she said, had told him on Christmas Eve that he needed to move out, before reiterating this to him in January and February

She added: “In the end, Dafydd had had enough of him. He said he should be taking responsibility now. He was hampering people’s work.

“Dafydd was thinking it would be better if he moved from there completely, and found somewhere to rent.”

Mrs Thomas then appeared in court today, via videolink, to give evidence as a witness.

She told the court that her relationship with her husband began in the late 1980s; at which time, he was a divorced father-of-two, and Thomas was finishing primary school.

Thomas began to change after moving to Leeds to read animal science at university.

He has received treatment for his condition, and was previously detained under the Mental Health Act at the Hergest Unit, Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor.

Mrs Thomas added that her husband left no will prior to his death, nor have the properties he owned at the time of his death since been distributed.

She added that she did not know if Thomas was due to inherit any possessions, and receive any financial benefit, as a result of his father’s death.

Asked by Gordon Aspden KC, defending, if she had anything at all to do with her husband’s death, she answered: “No.”

The trial is expected to last up to three weeks.