Welsh police have made public the audio of a 999 emergency call following the conviction of a man who murdered his best friend.
On December 24, 2023, Dylan Thomas fatally stabbed William Bush, his best friend and roommate, 37 times.
Thomas had been staying at his grandmother’s house the night before the incident, and she drove him home on the day of the crime.
He informed her that he needed to check on his dog, but instead, he went on to kill Bush.
Thomas is the grandson of Sir Stanley Thomas, a multimillionaire pie company magnate. Despite denying the murder of 23-year-old Bush, he admitted to manslaughter.
His trial took place in November 2024, and the jury swiftly reached a verdict within three hours.
Thomas was found guilty of murder and received a minimum sentence of 19 years imprisonment on Friday, January 24.
During the trial, the court listened to the 999 call made by Thomas.
Warning: distressing content
“I need an ambulance to my house,” Thomas stated to the operator during the call.
A woman’s distressed voice could be heard in the background, urging ‘quickly, quickly’.
After providing his address, the operator inquired if Bush was conscious.
“No, no, he’s my friend,” Thomas responded.
When asked if Bush was breathing, Thomas answered: “No he’s not, he’s dead.”
In another audio segment played in court, Thomas claimed his friend ‘went mental’ and that he took a knife out of fear for his life.
“He’s gone mental, I stabbed him. I took the knife off him and it just happened really,” Thomas explained.
The operator asked about the location of Bush’s injuries, as reported by Wales Online.
“Everywhere on him, I kept going and stabbed him,” Thomas admitted. “I didn’t stop… He stabbed me on my hands, my hands to get the knife.”
Thomas later claimed he was experiencing an ‘abnormality of mind’ at the time due to psychosis and schizophrenia.
However, experts concluded that his schizophrenia was unlikely to have impaired his ability to exercise self-control, undermining his defense of diminished responsibility.
“I am satisfied that as a result of your schizophrenia, your ability to form a rational judgment was impaired, albeit not the substantial level required to establish the defence of diminished responsibility,” the judge remarked.
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