Pierre Williams

Background

Pierre Williams was described by neighbours as the mother’s boyfriend and as a friend of Beverley Samuels.

Superintendent Peter Savill said:

“Pierre was a friend of the mother. He was a friend she had not seen until quite recently.”

Williams grew up in Moss Side, Manchester, but lived in Birmingham more recently. He had a tattoo on his right arm that said “cream” and more tattoos on his chest.

Beverley Samuels was a nurse who worked at Manchester Royal Infirmary.

Kesha Wizzart, 18, was looking forward to reading law at university. She had recently completed her A levels at Parrs Wood Sixth-Form College in Didsbury. She appeared on the junior version of ITV’s Stars in Their Eyes in 2004, when she was 15, impersonating the American R&B singer Toni Braxton with the song “Unbreak My Heart”.

Fred Wizzart was 13. He was said to have learning difficulties and to have attended St John Vianney School in Salford. Neighbours described him as riding his bicycle with other children and offering a free bicycle repair service in his garden.

The parents separated early in the children’s lives. Beverley Samuels’s former husband, Fred Wizzart, 38, was described as a sales manager and as a loving father who paid close attention to their welfare. On the night the bodies were discovered, he arrived to be informed of the deaths and was consoled by neighbours. He was heard screaming: “Why my children?”

Manchester Royal Infirmary said in a statement that Ms Samuels was “a very popular member of the team” who would be sadly missed.

Greater Manchester Police said the murders were not thought to be gang-related and sought to reassure the community that they were not looking for a random killer.

“We have got strong lines of inquiry which multiple officers have been drawn into to investigate. I can reassure the public that this does not represent a general threat to the wider community.
“We are absolutely determined to find the person responsible for these despicable murders.”

A police spokeswoman said Williams called police in the early hours of this morning and local officers went to his home, where he was arrested.

The offence

The deaths involved Beverley Samuels, 35, 36, and her daughter Kesha Wizzart, 18, and her son Fred Wizzart, 13.

The victims all had head injuries.

At trial, the jury heard that in the early hours of July 12 last year, Pierre Williams tied the teenager’s hands behind her back and sexually assaulted her, and he delivered fatal blows with a hammer or similar blunt instrument with such ferocity that it severed her ear.

The prosecution said Beverley Samuels was violently raped before her skull was crushed with repeated blows from an engineer’s hammer.

Ray Wigglesworth, QC, opening for the prosecution, told the jury:

“This was not, however, a frenzied attack by a man using wild and indiscriminate blows. The person who murdered the three deceased did so by delivering accurate and deliberate blows to the head of each victim. The prosecution say that these were execution-style murders.”

The prosecution case also included that Kesha Wizzart, her mother, and brother were murdered between 3.15am and 7.30am.

Ray Wigglesworth, QC, said:

“Pierre Williams brutally murdered the family in their own home. The scientific evidence suggests that the murder weapon was an engineer’s hammer with a long wooden shaft, and each of the deceased died as a result of severe blows to the head with this weapon.”

It was also said the family was murdered in their own home in Fallowfield, South Manchester.

A forensic account at trial included that:

• investigators retrieved a hammer from the bed of Ms Samuels
• a trace of DNA bearing some of the components of Mr Williams’s DNA was found on a bra
• a pair of shorts with semen from Mr Williams was retrieved from the washing basket
• forensic scientists matched bloody footprints from the distinctive Timberland shoes of Mr Williams to the crime scene

The jury watched a police video showing the bodies as they were found in heavily bloodstained bedrooms.

Ray Wigglesworth, QC, told the jury:

“Kesha Wizzart was murdered where she lay,”
“She was naked, with her hands tied behind her back, and a pair of black pants had been placed on her head.”

The prosecution suggested the attack was execution-style rather than indiscriminate. It was also put that there was a scientific possibility the murderer struck Beverley Samuels with a single, disabling blow and returned later “to finish her off”, and that she had been struck at least seven times.

During sentencing, the judge characterised Williams’s conduct as tied to sexual aggression:

“Pierre Williams is a man with a low threshold for sexual frustration. Just as he had in the past with a previous girlfriend, he took out his frustration by treating Beverley and her daughter with gross sexual aggression. In the course of giving evidence, Pierre Williams volunteered to the jury that the person who did this was an animal. The calm effrontery with which he volunteered that assessment demonstrates to me he harboured no remorse for what he had done and his purpose ever since has been to escape his just punishment if he could.”

The court heard that the bodies were found in a cul-de-sac in Fallowfield, Manchester, at the family’s terraced home on Thelwall Avenue.

Police initially refused to comment on a report that there had been an argument outside the house. Police also would not comment on suggestions that the bodies were found in separate rooms or that they may have died at different times.

Investigation

Greater Manchester Police said they sought to reassure the community that they were not looking for a random killer.

They said they had “strong lines of inquiry” with multiple officers drawn in to investigate.

The investigation included police appeal and follow-up enquiries.

During the trial, police evidence included that Williams sold mobile phones belonging to his victims:

• Ray Wigglesworth suggested that Mr Williams stole four mobile phones, selling one to a taxi driver who took him to Stockport railway station and three to a dealer in Birmingham for £60.

Investigators also found underlined passages connected to a Bible in Williams’s possession. The March 7, 2008 report described that a container of cocoa butter at the crime scene became significant when three pages underlined in ballpoint pen were found, including the words “special oil” high-lighted in three places, and passages that included:

“Moses took some of the special oil and some of the blood which was on the altar and he sprinkled them on Aaron and Aaron’s clothes.”

Arrest

A man was arrested on suspicion of the triple murders after the bodies were found at the family’s home.

A Greater Manchester Police spokeswoman said:

“A 32-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the bodies of two women and a boy were found at a house on Thelwall Avenue in Fallowfield on Thursday, July 12. ”
“GMP was made aware of this arrest at 5am this morning. ”
“Officers from GMP's Major Incident Team are en route to the city to question the man and he remains in police custody.”

Williams was arrested shortly after in Birmingham after the bodies were found.

Trial

Williams was tried at Manchester Crown Court.

Ray Wigglesworth, QC, told the jury the murders were execution-style murders.

Williams denied murder.

The jury heard evidence that Ms Samuels had an intermittent relationship with Mr Williams during 2005 after the break-up of her marriage. It was said that Williams lived in the Midlands and had a habit of turning up unexpectedly at the semi-detached home of Ms Samuels in Fallowfield.

Friends were surprised to see him there last July.

The prosecution said Ms Samuels explained to Selena Brown, her niece, that Williams had stayed the night but that she had refused to have sex with him because she was menstruating. The account also said that Williams had stormed off in a temper.

The jury heard that Kesha, who lived with her father, decided to stay overnight with her mother the following day and was dropped off at the house by a taxi in the early hours.

The prosecution suggested that Kesha was found with serious head injuries, and that her brother was also found dead close by.

The court also heard about Williams’s previous sexual violence against women, including that he had been accused of raping the same woman on two occasions in 2003. The account included that:

• on the first occasion he became sexually violent when she refused to have sex with him, tied her hands behind her back, raped her and assaulted her with an object, telling her that she would never be able to have sex again
• on the second occasion he forced his way into the home, attempted sexual intercourse, and the woman was able to escape

A former girlfriend of Williams described how he bound and gagged her before raping her.

During sentencing, the judge referred to Williams’s history of sexual violence towards women and described the evidence as demonstrating that only Williams could have known the terror and pain inflicted on the victims before they died.

Sentencing

The court convicted Williams of three counts of murder after a ten-day trial.

On March 6, 2008, Mr Justice Pitchford sentenced Williams to life in prison with a minimum term of at least 38 years.

The March 7, 2008 report described that Pierre Williams scuffled violently with court guards as he was found guilty, and that three security guards rushed to restrain him. He was bundled down to the cells at Manchester Crown Court after the verdict, and he loudly proclaimed his innocence. The judge banned Williams from the dock when he sentenced him later.

The sentencing report included the judge’s remarks quoted above.

Outcome

Williams was found guilty of three counts of murder.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment (minimum 38 years) on March 6, 2008.

Aftermath

Fred Wizzart made a victim impact statement in which he said:

“Kesha was my first child, she set the course of my life . . . She was a typical teenager. She had so much depth to her. She could be loud, fun, loving, sporty, but she was also caring, a good listener and in many ways my soul-mate.”

Jamie Smyth, 21, a neighbour, said:

“I saw Fred. He was pacing the square with his head in his hands. He looked devastated.”

A report also stated that Kesha had a CD produced of her music after she beat off hundreds of music hopefuls to win a competition by local radio station Carnival FM, in Manchester.

Other details

Selena Brown was named as the person to whom Ms Samuels explained that Williams had stayed the night and that she refused to have sex with him because she was menstruating.

Manchester Royal Infirmary also described Ms Samuels as “a very popular member of the team” who would be sadly missed.

The March 7, 2008 report said investigators did not know in what order the family died, and said it was possible that Williams merely stunned Ms Samuels before attacking Miss Wizzart in a spare bedroom across the landing.

The March 7, 2008 report also stated that Williams fled to Birmingham, where he sold several mobile phones belonging to his victims, but in the face of a nationwide police appeal he gave himself up two days later.

Williams was described as about 5ft 8in (1.72m) and of medium build by neighbours.

Police refused to comment on suggestions that the bodies were found in separate rooms or that they may have died at different times.