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Sports therapist found guilty of murdering retired lecturer with crossbow bolt

Whall, Corrigan's remote home, and Corrigan, right. (North Wales Police/PA Images)
Whall, Corrigan's remote home, and Corrigan, right. (North Wales Police/PA Images)

A sports therapist has been found guilty of killing a retired lecturer outside his home with a crossbow in the middle of the night.

Terence Whall, 39, denied killing 74-year-old Gerald Corrigan at the latter’s remote home in Anglesey in April last year.

Corrigan was hit by a crossbow bolt as he adjusted his satellite dish during the night and died in hospital nearly a month later.

Prosecutors told a jury at Mold Crown Court in Wales that it may never be known why Corrigan was shot.

The court has heard that Corrigan and his partner, Marie Bailey, had given £250,000 to a man called Richard Wyn Lewis.

Whall was found guilty at Mold Crown Court on Monday. (North Wales Police/PA Images)
Whall was found guilty at Mold Crown Court on Monday. (North Wales Police/PA Images)
A crossbow bolt identical to the one used by Terence Whall when he shot Gerald Corrigan. (PA Images/North Wales Police)
A crossbow bolt identical to the one used by Terence Whall when he shot Gerald Corrigan. (PA Images/North Wales Police)

The couple also allowed Wyn Lewis to grow cannabis on their property, but the court heard Corrigan became “very angry” when he discovered it was a large-scale farm.

Prosecutor Peter Rouch QC told the jury during the trial that it had been alleged the money was part of a fraud carried out by Wyn Lewis.

He said there was evidence of association between Whall and Wyn Lewis that “may be of significance”.

After he was shot, Corrigan told Bailey to “call Wyn” and she went to stay with Wyn Lewis, who told her not to tell police about the money they had given him, the court heard. Detectives are now investigating a potential fraud against Corrigan.

Bailey appealed for anyone with information as to why Whall killed Corrigan to come forward and said: “To that sad, twisted broken soul who murdered him, I say if you have an ounce of humanity, any sense of decency then you would tell us now why you have done this.”

Whall travelled to Wyn Lewis’s home a number of times in the weeks before April 2019.

The jury heard that Whall and Gavin Jones, 36, who denied conspiracy to pervert the course of justice along with Whall, were arrested at Wyn Lewis’s home on 31 May.

“What we do know is this incident between the three of them revolved around money, money that they, Gavin Jones and Terence Whall, wanted from Wyn Lewis.

“Wyn Lewis, the man who had apparently conned Marie Bailey and Gerald Corrigan out of a large sum of money,” Rouch said.

Whall had told the court he sold a crossbow three months before Corrigan was murdered, and had ordered a new crossbow but said it did not arrive until after Corrigan’s death.

The court heard he had ordered crossbow bolts and broadheads from Amazon in February and March.

The remote Anglesey home of Gerald Corrigan. (North Wales Police/PA Images)
The remote Anglesey home of Gerald Corrigan. (North Wales Police/PA Images)

Whall’s defence lawyer David Elias QC said there was no evidence linking his client to Wyn Lewis but that Wyn Lewis owed Jones money for work.

Suggesting Whall was “odd”, he added that Whall had no connection to Corrigan and “absolutely no reason to do this”.

Whall told police he was at his partner Emma Roberts’s house in Bryngwran, Anglesey, the night before the attack, when prosecutors say he had been carrying out reconnaissance on Corrigan’s property, and on the night the attack took place.

But GPS recovered from Whall’s car showed he had been in the area at those times.

When asked why he had not told the truth, Whall told the court he had been engaging in sexual activity with a male friend, Barry Williams, nearby.

“What I do with my sexual life is my private business and nothing to do with North Wales Police or The Sun newspaper or everyone else,” Whall told the court last week.

“There’s nobody knows the gravity of this situation more than me. I’ve had my name dragged through the papers.”

Williams, however, denied having a sexual relationship with Whall.

Gavin Jones was convicted on Monday. (North Wales Police/PA Images)
Gavin Jones was convicted on Monday. (North Wales Police/PA Images)

Jones and Whall were found guilty of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in relation to an alleged plot to set fire to Whall’s Land Rover Discovery – the GPS from which was recovered and showed Whall had been in the area of Corrigan’s home on the night of the attack.

Jones was arrested on 3 June when police said they noticed a smell of petrol and fuel canisters at his home in Bryngwran.

James Tilbury, representing Jones, said there were a “number of gaps” and “numerous question marks” in the prosecution case.

Jones’ brother Darren and friend Martin Roberts admitted the arson of the Land Rover but Tilbury questioned if it was fair to assume brothers do everything together.

Corrigan’s daughter Fiona said in statement: “Nothing can prepare you for a 7am telephone call on a bank holiday weekend to tell you your dad has been shot.”