On Christmas Eve last year, Dylan Thomas – the quiet millionaire heir to a food company fortune – brutally stabbed his best friend to death.
A jury at Cardiff Crown Court today found him guilty of murdering William Bush and he now awaits sentencing, due next month. Thomas is the grandson of Sir Stanley Thomas, the founder of Peter’s Pies, whose net worth was estimated to be £230m in 2013 and sat in court throughout the trial.
Thomas had known victim William since they attended the same private school a decade ago. During their long friendship, the pair hung out together and enjoyed holidays before moving in and sharing a house together. All this came to an end when Thomas stabbed William – said to be his only friend – 37 times in the attack with two knives, inflicting 16 wounds to his neck, at the home owned by his wealthy family.
During this week’s trial, it was suggested Thomas had “resentment” towards his friend. Loner Thomas struck after his only friend Williams told him he was planning to move out with his girlfriend Ella Jeffries. The trial heard how Thomas was three when his parents split up in 2003 after his dad, Scott Thomas, attacked his mother – a model who featured on the cover of Vogue – and was himself jailed for six months in the same court his son appeared in.
The 24-year-old’s grandfather, Sir Stanley Thomas, who is responsible for the family’s wealth, was in court throughout the trial. Sir Stanley and his brother, Peter, joined their dad in the 1950s, going door-to-door selling meat pies. Thomas Pies was sold in 1965, but just five years later the brothers launched their own pie business – Peter’s Savoury Products, which flourished with a £70m annual turnover and was sold in 1988 for £75m.The family went on to invest in a property firm who had assets including airports in Cardiff, Belfast and Luton. The subsequent sale of that firm bolstered the family’s fortune by an extra £100 million, causing them to become regular faces in the Sunday Times Rich List.
Sir Stanley Thomas was knighted in 2006 for his services to business, while his brother Peter became chairman of Cardiff rugby club. Sir Stanley’s son, Scott, also made headlines – but for a very different reason. In 1988 he launched Scott’s, a Cardiff nightclub, with friend such as Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Simon and Yasmin Le Bon making an appearance at opening night.
It was hoped the club would rival the “ambience, clientele and chic” of London’s clubs, providing a ritzy experience in Cardiff. But just a year after opening, the club shut after a patron died. By this time, Scott Thomas was dating model Kirstie Howells, 10 years his junior, who had worked with Versace and Armani and shared the catwalk with legends such as Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista. Dylan was born in 2000, in Jersey, before the family’s move to a mansion in the Old St Mellons area of Cardiff.
It was there that Scott Thomas carried out his attack on Ms Howells. During his trial, the court heard how he hurled Ms Howells over his shoulder, slapping her and beating her about the head with a telephone while shouting “I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you.” It’s said Dylan, who was around three at the time, was home at the time of the brutal assault, that only ended when Ms Howells flagged down a passing driver. She later told friends: “I am rebuilding my life and facing up to the prospect of trying to explain to Dylan when he is older why his dad had to go to prison.”
The young Thomas received a top private education as a child at the £44,000-a-year Christ College Brecon. It was here that he first met William Bush when he joined the school at the age of 13 and the pair became “the closest of friends”. Mr Bush, whose dad is an English teacher, was a talented sportsman with a passion for rugby who was popular, in contrast to his introverted friend. After school Mr Bush went on to university, and while Thomas got a place at Cardiff Metropolitan University, he left after a year.
He moved to a £425,000 house in Llandaff, on the outskirts of Cardiff, that his grandfather owned as part of his property portfolio. Mr Bush moved in with him in 2021 and helped look after his friend’s labrador, Bruce. Thomas couldn’t drive, having failed his theory test five times, so relied on his housemate for transport.
“Will had lots of friends,” the victim’s brother, Alex Bush, told police. “He was caring, perhaps too caring at times. Loyal, extremely loyal. They would go on holidays together… I think Will kind of felt sorry for him and wanted to be there for him. If Will came back home for Sunday lunch or to play golf he would make sure to get back because Dylan was on his own. He was just caring.”
Thomas is listed as the sole director of three tech companies listed at the property and had been working on virtual reality headset accessories at the time of the killing. Mr Bush had been working as a surveyor, but given up the job due to stress and ill health. His girlfriend, Ella Jeffries, told police she had shared concerns about his friend’s behaviour in the months before the attack.
That autumn, he told her of a time Thomas had told him “I thought or wondered about killing you”. Mr Bush was concerned enough that he barricaded his bedroom door that night, but Thomas didn’t try and get in and the pair continued living together.
During the trial, the jury heard from Dr Panchu Xavier, a consultant forensic psychiatrist at Ashworth, who said the defendant could have been having a psychotic episode during the attack and for “up to six months before the event”. Thomas admitted killing his friend, but claimed deminished responsibility, denying murder.
The defence argued throughout the case that Thomas was mentally unwell at the time of the incident, saying there was a “gamut” of signs of psychosis. In the weeks leading up to the brutal attack, the court heard there had been signs of mental illness.
They were told how concerning comments had been made to Mr Bush and others, including a message to tech billionaire Elon Musk, offering to help him “solve gravity.” Then in November, Thomas was arrested after reportedly climbing over a fence surrounding Buckingham Palace, and was intervewed by a psychiatrist while in custody but later released on bail.
Sending the jury out on Thursday, judge Mrs Justice Steyn KC said they could take as long as they need to reach a verdict in the case. They returned in a matter of hours. Trial judge Mrs Justice Steyn said she would pass sentence on December 16.
