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A farmer has been sentenced to 35 years in prison after shooting his lodger and dismembering the victim’s body. Richard Dyson, aged 55, vanished in November 2019, but the remains of his body were not found until nearly six years later. The remains were concealed inside a concrete-filled barrel located in a trailer on a farm near Barnsley.
During the trial held at Sheffield Crown Court, it was revealed that Christopher Wright was responsible for Dyson’s death when Dyson attempted to steal a gun from him. Wright disposed of the body with the assistance of his childhood friend, Karl Schwalbe. Last month, Wright, who is 73 years old, was found guilty of murder. Schwalbe, aged 72, was convicted of perverting the course of justice. Additionally, Wright was found guilty of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, preventing a lawful burial, and six firearms offences.
Sentencing Wright, Mr Justice Cotter remarked, “You had worked as a butcher and were skilled enough to do such a terrible thing, something few ordinary people would have the stomach for.” Schwalbe received a three-year prison sentence for his involvement in obstructing justice. Dyson’s daughter, Bethany Dainty, described the ordeal as a “living nightmare.” She had made many public appeals over the years to find her missing father. In a victim impact statement read at the court, she expressed her disbelief at the silence surrounding her father’s suffering: “Someone watched me suffering for years and said nothing. That level of cruelty is impossible for me to understand.”
The court also learned that Dyson had been living in his car outside Wright’s home on Sheffield Road in Hoyland. He regularly helped Wright with tasks including cutting hedges, repairing tractors, and giving him lifts to appointments. Wright was portrayed in court as a “weapons fanatic” and collector, with several vintage firearms, old farm equipment, and musical instruments in his possession. Dyson’s former partner recounted how Dyson had found a machine gun on Wright’s farm months prior to disappearing and had kept it, knowing it was valuable. Prosecutors said Wright became “greatly angered” when he discovered the gun had been taken and killed Dyson with a shotgun close at hand. Dyson’s phone made its final call on 17 November 2019, the day he was reported missing. Following this, Wright and Schwalbe were questioned by police but denied any knowledge of Dyson’s fate.
Further evidence presented at trial showed Wright had enlisted Schwalbe’s help to conceal Dyson’s body. A review of mobile phone records in July 2025 uncovered that Wright had contacted Ian Ollerenshaw, the owner of Alderthwaite Farm in Hoyland, three days after Dyson vanished. Ollerenshaw testified that Wright requested to store a livestock trailer on his land while cleaning up his own farm. He noted the event in his diary and stated the trailer was brought onto his property by a vintage Fordson tractor but admitted he did not inspect its contents. Dyson’s remains were eventually found inside the padlocked trailer in the barrel filled with concrete, alongside Wright’s identification
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