DAVID Wilcox, 65, was a much-loved grandfather who enjoyed a hugely successful IT career. But he was cruelly denied a peaceful retirement when he was stabbed and beaten to death in his Colwyn Bay home last November.
It was mid-2023 when he first met either of his murderers. He was enjoying a visit to the Black Cloak pub, where he was hugely popular with both staff and his fellow regulars, when, as he often did, he struck up a conversation outside with a stranger.
Lauren Harris, a 29-year-old mother-of-two, was that stranger. What transpired in the following months was a tragic course of events which culminated in Mr Wilcox losing his life in the most undignified fashion.
Within weeks of their first meeting, Harris, of the Colwyn Bay area but originally from Llandudno, moved in to Mr Wilcox’s home on Bay View Road, where he lived with his estranged wife, Marcia.
Harris, who was convicted after trial of Mr Wilcox’s murder along with co-defendant David Webster, and jailed for life with a 25-year minimum term, ostensibly began a relationship with him. Not according to Marcia Wilcox, though, who called it a “coercive mess”.
So “disgusted” by Harris’ behaviour was Mrs Wilcox, who lived happily with Mr Wilcox despite their marriage ending years earlier, that she moved out last October. She would hear Harris “on the driveway, shouting abuse”, often with her “so-called friends”; and called her “annoying” and “frequently intoxicated with drink and drugs”. Living with her, she said, was a “nightmare”.
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Mr Wilcox’s neighbour, Helen Ainge, “often heard shouting and arguments” at his house after Harris arrived, so decided to start sleeping in a rear bedroom of her property, and stop working from home, due to the noise. Police became increasingly frequent on Bay View Road, which Mrs Wilcox said was “always a really quiet road” previously.
In September, Harris took Mr Wilcox’s mobile from him while he was on the phone to his son, Robert. She told Robert Wilcox, while talking with “slurred” speech, “we are selling the house” and “we are going to move”, as well as saying they were engaged, which seemed “bizarre” to him. Another of Mr Wilcox’s four sons, Maxim, said the speed with which Harris moved in seemed “strange” and “very quick”, adding: “It sounded more like she told him she was moving in.”
Others expressed concern to Mr Wilcox about his apparent relationship with Harris, a woman less than half his age. He told them he “had to hide the knives” and sleep “with one eye open” when Harris was at his home. Indeed, Harris' 40 previous convictions included for slashing an ex-partner's back with a knife, and for repeatedly punching a man to the head outside a bank. Mr Wilcox himself had already been assaulted by Harris before the night he was killed.
Those at the Black Cloak, which banned Harris last June, also grew worried she was “controlling” Mr Wilcox. He reiterated he was “going to save” Harris, a woman who, her barrister Simon Killeen said, had a “broken past” and had been a drug addict since 18. Mr Wilcox also claimed at the pub that Harris made threats to him, which she said she would carry out if he ended their relationship.
In the 18 months before Mr Wilcox and Harris met, about £5,500 was withdrawn from his bank account. Between June and November 2023, though, £12,481 was taken out. It left him overdrawn, and dependent on regular loans from relatives. Essentially, prosecutor Andrew Ford KC said, Harris “took advantage” of him.
Those who previously knew Harris found it “strange she was with an older man” and described her as “always drunk and loud”. She was seen in an “embarrassing” state when once with Mr Wilcox at Hickory’s Smokehouse in Rhos-on-Sea last September, and was once spotted leaving his home carrying “about £600-700” in bank notes.
It was outside Mr Wilcox’s house where she first met Webster, 43, of Lacey Street, Widnes, on November 14, when he supplied her with crack cocaine - fuelling Harris’ drug habit which Mr Wilcox said he wanted to help her kick.
She and Webster were "inseparable" in the following days; exchanging “affectionate” texts, and having sex at a chalet owned by Webster’s father in Llanddulas, where he was living at the time. They were together when they came across Thomas Whiteley acquiring drugs in Colwyn Bay on November 19, which later led to Harris inviting him and Webster to Mr Wilcox’s home that evening.
All three of them drank alcohol and took drugs in the company of Mr Wilcox, who drank but did not take drugs, and though the atmosphere was calm initially, Harris and Webster turned violent in the early hours of November 20.
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An argument broke out between Harris and Mr Wilcox, which resulted in her stabbing him twice and Webster seriously assaulting him. Whiteley, 33, of Old Colwyn, was also charged with murder but was cleared.
Twice while giving evidence, Webster described Harris as a “crazed animal” when she stabbed Mr Wilcox. Whiteley told police she had a “face to kill” and appeared “evil”. He added that, when he said he was leaving Mr Wilcox’s home, Harris replied: “You’re going nowhere. If I’m going down, we’re all going down. If you tell anyone, I’ll kill you and your family.” Both he and Webster also claimed they were each held at knifepoint by Harris in the aftermath.
She smoked heroin and crack cocaine on the night of Mr Wilcox’s death, before trying and failing to withdraw money from Mr Wilcox’s bank account eight times due to “insufficient funds”. It was upon her return to his house, between 1.52am and 2.10am, that Mr Wilcox is believed to have suffered his fatal injuries.
Despite being unable to drive, Harris made off in Mr Wilcox’s Volvo after the attack, with Webster and Whiteley in the passenger seats, but the car crashed on an A55 slip road moments later. She was the last to be arrested, located in an alleyway by Rhiw Road late on November 20.
CCTV footage showed Harris telling Webster: “I stabbed him twice” after they fled the scene of the crash together. Yet she denied using a knife and said she did “f*** all” when quizzed by police. Traces of Mr Wilcox’s blood were also found on two knives discovered in his car, a vodka bottle in his home which he was struck with, and Harris’ and Webster’s discarded clothes.
Harris was the only defendant to not give evidence. She spent much of the trial preoccupied and emotionless, her vacant expression remaining even when the jury sealed her fate, and when Mr Justice Edward Pepperall labelled Mr Wilcox’s murder “brutal” post-verdict. “I detect no remorse,” he told her during sentencing.
This is not Harris’ first sentence. It will, though, be her most punishing. Now, she is behind bars for at least the next 25 years of her life after she and Webster took Mr Wilcox’s from him.
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