THE course of events which led to the death of a 65-year-old man in his Colwyn Bay home has been laid out in court.
Lauren Harris, 29, of no fixed abode; David Webster, 43, of Lacey Street, Widnes; and Thomas Whiteley, 33, of Clos Emlyn, Old Colwyn; all deny murdering David Wilcox on November 20, 2023.
Their trial began at Mold Crown Court this week.
This is the timeline of events which prosecuting barrister Andrew Ford KC has told the jury about.
June 2023
Mr Wilcox and Harris meet for the first time. They “got talking” outside the Black Cloak pub, at which he was a popular regular.
Soon after, they begin a relationship, which leads to Harris moving in to his Mock Tudor home with him on Bay View Road.
Mr Wilcox’s wife is also living in the house at the time, but they had been separated for about 10 years.
For reasons of convenience, they never divorced, and continued to live in the same building, with Mr Wilcox occupying the self-contained basement flat at the property.
October 2023
Mr Wilcox's wife moves out, such are her concerns about the relationship between him and Harris.
By the end of the month, Mr Wilcox’s bank account is overdrawn, having “almost always measured in the four-figure sums” prior to meeting Harris.
November 14, 2023
This is the date which, based on an exchange of messages, Harris and Webster are believed to have first met.
They shared “affectionate” messages, and talked of sharing drugs and accessing funds to do this.
November 17, 2023
Webster and Harris are seen on closed circuit television on or at Mr Wilcox’s address on more than one occasion.
Evidence suggests Mr Wilcox appears to “drive them away” in his car.
November 18, 2023
Webster and Harris, having spent the night at a chalet owned by Webster’s father at Llanddulas Chalet Park, are again seen repeatedly at Mr Wilcox’s address and being driven by him in his car.
It appears, Mr Ford suggested, that Mr Wilcox was essentially acting as a “courier” for them.
November 19, 2023
3.40pm – Mr Wilcox drops Webster and Harris off at Parc Llandudno retail park. He later drops them off at a Penmaenmawr supermarket.
4pm – Whiteley, walking with a limp and with the aid of a crutch, is dropped off by a friend in the centre of Colwyn Bay.
5pm – Mr Wilcox drops Harris and Webster off near the Llys Trefor flats on Sea View Road, where associates of Harris live. They don’t go in, walking off along Abergele Road instead.
6pm – Harris and Webster come together with Whiteley at the Llys Trefor flats.
Just before 7pm – Mr Wilcox texts Harris: “Can you let me know what the plans are for this evening?” before going to the Black Cloak.
8.06pm – Mr Wilcox arrives back home. That was the last time any camera captures him alive.
8.15pm – All three defendants enter Mr Wilcox’s home. The prosecution’s case is that the three of them, with Mr Wilcox, spend the evening “drinking, socialising, some of them taking drugs”, and that “in the main, things between them were fine”.
10pm – The three defendants go to a shop; one uses a cashpoint, while Webster buys a vodka bottle.
10.15pm – They return to Mr Wilcox’s house.
November 20, 2023
1.38am – Harris leaves Mr Wilcox’s house alone carrying his bank card and jogging towards a cash machine.
1.43am – She tries to withdraw £50 from Mr Wilcox’s account, but an “insufficient funds” message flashes up.
1.47am – Webster telephones a number known to be a “local drugs line” – the prosecution suggests that Harris had gone out to get funds from Mr Wilcox’s account to buy the drugs.
1.48am – Harris walks away from a second cashpoint empty-handed, having tried multiple times to withdraw money from it but again receiving an “insufficient funds” message.
1.52am – Harris returns to Mr Wilcox’s home. It is the prosecution’s case that, within the following 18 minutes, he sustains his fatal injuries, stabbed twice to the chest by Harris and also subjected to unlawful violence by Webster and Whiteley.
2.10am to 2.17am – Harris emerges from Mr Wilcox’s home and gets in to his car.
Webster and Whiteley enter the rear seats of the car, and Harris drives away.
Within one minute, there is a crash. Whiteley runs off alone, before Harris and Webster flee together soon after.
A camera which picks up audio records Harris telling Webster: “I stabbed him twice”.
2.20am – Harris tells Webster: “Take your hat off; it’ll have his blood on”. Webster removes his “fairly distinctive bobble hat” and replaces it with a cap.
2.35am – By now, police have been called about the crash by railway workers who witnessed it. A police dog picks up human scent by Ivy Street car park – a subsequent foot chase leads to Webster’s arrest. He discards two wristwatches during the pursuit, one of which belonged to Mr Wilcox. Harris is nearby when the dog chase occurs but is not seen or found at that point.
2.45-3.05am – Harris is given refuge at the Llys Trefor flats, but doesn’t stay the night there.
2.45am-3am – Whiteley walks to an ex-partner’s home in his underwear, having discarded his other items of clothing enroute.
3.10am – Whiteley rings police claiming to have witnessed a robbery and a stabbing. He says he was threatened to get into a car with the people responsible, which then crashed.
He says Harris knew the victim, and that Mr Wilcox had been “battered black and blue and left at the house”.
Whiteley claims he was hit with a bottle by Mr Wilcox, but adds: “I don’t blame him, because I was in the house, I was involved, I f***** up. I didn’t stab him, I held him down to the floor and got him to stay down so they couldn’t hit him anymore.”
3.50am – Harris runs into another person in the centre of Colwyn Bay before spending the night at another address in the town.
5.17am – Mr Wilcox is pronounced deceased at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd. By then, Whiteley has also been arrested.
Officers had discovered Mr Wilcox was the registered keeper of the car which crashed, so attended his address, and found him unresponsive in an armchair in his living room.
Two knives are also found in Mr Wilcox’s car – one on the driver’s seat, and one on the back seat – both have traces of his blood on them.
His blood is also found on a vodka bottle recovered at his home.
Evening of November 20 – Harris is found and arrested in the centre of Colwyn Bay. She tells officers: “Two other people are responsible”.
November 24, 2023
Harris is charged with murdering Mr Wilcox.
January 18, 2024
Whiteley and Webster are charged with murdering Mr Wilcox.
April 15, 2024
Harris, Whiteley and Webster all appear in court to plead not guilty to murdering Mr Wilcox. They are now due to stand trial for the next three to four weeks.
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