‘Loner’ heir of £230,000,000 pie fortune jailed for killing of flatmate

Dylan Thomas has been jailed for life for the murder of his friend William Bush, 23 (Pictures: Wales News Service)

A ‘loner’ multi-millionaire heir, who murdered his flatmate when he learnt the 23-year-old was moving out, has been jailed.

Dylan Thomas, 24, killed his friend William Bush in a sustained and brutal stabbing attack on Christmas eve 2023.

He was jailed for life today at Cardiff Crown Court with a minimum term of 19 years.

Thomas felt betrayed by Mr Bush after learning his friend was moving out to live with his girlfriend Ella, the court heard.

He had looked up details of the anatomy of the neck before launching afrenzied attack at their flat in in Llandaff, Cardiff some hours later.

Thomas is the grandson of property tycoon and businessman Sir Stanley Thomas, who founded Peter’s Pies and had an estimated net worth of £230,000,000 in 2013.

The court heard Thomas used a 7cm-long black flick knife to stab Mr Bush to the back of the neck, the head and the chest.

The pair went down two flights of stairs and outside onto a patio where Mr Bush collapsed after suffering a fatal cut to the artery in his neck, causing him to bleed to death.

William Bush, pictured, was stabbed to death on Christmas Eve (Picture: Wales News Service)

Thomas later claimed he was suffering from an ‘abnormality of mind’ because of psychosis and schizophrenia.

However, after a nine day trial a juryfound him guilty of murder. 

In a victim impact statement, Mr Bush’s sister Catrin described her brother’s murder as a ‘barbaric crime’.

‘Will’s life was taken away from him on December 24 2023 in the most barbaric and cruel way,’ she said.

‘Will was innocently getting things sorted to return back to Brecon to spend Christmas with us as a family. But instead of Will returning home for dinner on Christmas Eve, it was Dyfed-Powys Police knocking on our door informing us that Will had died.

‘I cannot put into words how traumatic and awful this experience was, and I still have intense moments of panic when I think about this.

‘Myself and Alex cannot begin to comprehend the fear and suffering that Will endured on that day. We are truly haunted from the horror of it and this will live with us forever.’

Thomas’s grandfather made a fortune after founding Peter’s Pies (Picture: Wales News Service)

Police at the scene of the murder in Llandaff, Cardiff (Picture: Wales News Service)

Mr Bush’s father, John, meanwhile said in his victim statement: ‘This is not normal grief, where death is part of human existence and loss can be accepted and memories of loved ones celebrated. We are not there yet, and there is not yet any closure for us.

‘We carry on with our own lives, but we know we are always pretending.’

Mr Bush was a talented sportsman – with a passion for rugby and played county golf.

The former university student was described as popular, while Thomas was said to be a loner with very few friends.

The pair went to the £13,000-a-term Christ College in Brecon.

Thomas’ parents, Sir Stanley’s son Scott Thomas and former Vogue model Kirstie Howells separated when he was three years old.

The jury was only told there was only ‘alleged domestic violence’ between the couple.

Thomas was described as a loner (Picture: Wales News Service)

A CCTV still of Thomas attending a family meal at the Miskin Arms the day before the murder (Picture: Wales News Service)

However, his father Scott had previously been jailed for six months after a violent attack on Miss Howells, who is 10 years his junior, at the mansion they shared.

He beat her about the head with a telephone after she tried to call the police – causing blood to splatter over the walls in front of their then two-year-old son Thomas.

At one point Scott shouted: ‘I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you.’

At the time, the court heard that young Thomas and his stepbrother Kellen, five, were shut in the kitchen while the dad continued the ‘frenzied assault.’

Miss Howells managed to run from the house and flag down a passing motorist, who described her as being ‘a bloody mess’.

Having spent time in Wales, his mother then moved away to Sussex and ran a modelling agency.

Thomas’s father once launched a Cardiff nightclub called Scott’s – hoping to rival London’s chic clubs and counted pop star Simon le Bon and wife Yasmin as friends.

But the venue shut after one year after a clubber died when he fell over a first-floor safety rail – falling 20ft onto the dance floor below.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Arrow
MORE: Search for three men last seen at Soho flat where pioneering drag queen was found dead

Arrow
MORE: First picture of university lecturer ‘stabbed to death’ in Plymouth

Arrow
MORE: Pensioner who killed eight-month-old baby in ‘senseless’ crash outside hospital jailed