Terence Townsend was serving a life sentence for the ‘brutal and sustained attack’
Terence Townsend died at Buckley Hall prison in Rochdale(Image: HM Inspectorate of Prisons)
A murderer jailed for life for killing a homeless man in a row over £12 has died in jail.
Terence Townsend was one of four men found guilty of murdering John Dunn in a ‘brutal and sustained attack’. A jury heard Mr Dunn, 45, suffered more than 100 injuries when he was set upon after returning empty-handed from a trip to Tesco to buy alcohol.
Townsend died aged 68 at HMP Buckley Hall in Rochdale in February due to a tear in the heart, a report has found. Prisons ombudsman Adrian Usher said the death was from natural causes.
Townsend, then 51 and of Cardiff, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 14 years after being found guilty of murder at Bristol Crown Court in 2007.
A jury heard Townsend, Andrew Fuge, then 45, of Weston; Richard Evans, then 54, of Pill in North Somerset; and Wayne Jones, 37, of Weston, who was handed the same sentence, killed Mr Dunn in a bedsit in the seaside town of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset.
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Judge Mr Justice Butterfield, said the men had launched a ‘brutal and sustained attack on a small defenceless man’, adding: “He was bludgeoned, battered, and stabbed to death in an horrific attack which must have gone on for many minutes.”
The court heard Mr Dunn had been drinking in Jones’ flat with the group who gave him £12 to buy alcohol from Tesco. He was refused service because he was drunk and returned without the money or alcohol at which point the men started attacking him by punching, kicking, stabbing, and slashing him with broken bottles, a table knife, and glass from a mirror.
Paul Dunkels KC, prosecuting, said: “It was a prolonged attack. They probably had to take it in turns because the size of the room.”
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When police arrived they found Jones, Evans, and Townsend sitting on a mattress next to Dunn’s body while Fuge was in a flat across the landing. Blood was found on the clothes of all. Mr Dunn’s friend Ronald Crutchley, who was also present, described how the victim had screamed in pain and shouted for the men to stop.
Mr Crutchley said he just sat at the foot of the bed and did not do anything because he was ‘petrified’ of the men turning on him. He did claim to have told them: “Stop it. He’s had enough.”
A post-mortem examination found there were 28 injuries to Mr Dunn’s head and neck, more than 60 to his back, and more than 35 to his arms and hands.
A clinical reviewer concluded the clinical care Townsend received at Buckley Hall before his death was of a ‘reasonable standard’. The prisons ombudsman investigated the non-clinical issues relating to Townsend’s care and did not identify any failings.