The grandson of a pie company tycoon who killed his best friend in a “frenzied attack” on Christmas Eve has been sentenced.
Dylan Thomas, 24, killed William Bush, 23, at the property they shared in the Llandaff area of Cardiff on 24 December 2023.
Thomas had admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility but denied Mr Bush’s murder.
At Cardiff Crown Court in November, a jury of 10 men and two women found him guilty of murder.
On Friday he was handed a life sentence, with a minimum term of 19 years imprisonment, minus the time he has already spent in custody.
Mr Bush sustained 37 stab wounds in total, including 21 to the neck, and his cause of death was given as “multiple stab wounds to the neck and trunk”.
The court heard Thomas used two knives – a kitchen knife and flick knife – in the attack on Mr Bush.
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Thomas, who the trial heard has schizophrenia, had claimed in the immediate aftermath of the attack that he was acting in self-defence.
He is the grandson of Sir Stanley Thomas, the founder of Peter’s Pies, a company based in South Wales.
Reading a victim impact statement, Mr Bush’s sister Catrin said her brother’s life was taken “in the most barbaric and cruel way”.
“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,” she said.
Ms Bush said her family could not “begin to comprehend the fear and suffering that Will endured on that day”.
“Will was such a loyal, funny and caring person. He lit up every room he walked into with his cheeky grin and quick-witted humour,” she added.
“I sat through as much of the trial as I could bear, as you can imagine some of the evidence was too heartbreaking for me to sit through.”
William Bush’s father, John David Bush, told the court he couldn’t attend any of the previous hearings but was “determined” to attend the sentencing.
“The instinct of all parents is to love and protect our children and to keep them safe, but we were not able to do this and this haunts us every day,” he said.
“All aspects of his life, and indeed his body, have been dissected. He has had no privacy in death.”
Mr Bush added: “His life was short, but he had, and continues to have, meaning.
“Imagine all the things that you would have missed if you had died at 23. Marriage, children, family, the daily joys of the life.”
In her victim impact statement, Mr Bush’s long-term girlfriend Ella Jeffries said he was “petrified of dying” and his death had “left an indescribable pain and a darkness in [her] life”.
“Will was the love of my life and meant everything to me,” she said. “Life will never be the same without Will.”
In mitigation, Orlando Pownall KC said Thomas was a “young man” at the time of the offence and has “no previous convictions”.
Mr Pownall also cited Thomas’s mental illness, after his trial heard he lived with schizophrenia.
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Handing down her sentence, Mrs Justice Steyn said Thomas murdered Mr Bush in a “sustained and ferocious knife attack”.
She said Mr Bush was “senselessly murdered and deprived of many, many decades of a happy and fulfilling life”.
“The sentence I will pass is not intended as a measure of the value of Will’s life, that is beyond measure,” she added.
She said the “frenzied attack” was persistent in nature and “must have terrified the deceased and caused him great pain and distress”.
Mrs Justice Steyn thanked those who had brought Thomas to justice and paid tribute to Mr Bush’s family for their “dignity, fortitude and restraint”.
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Detective Constable Joanne Harris from South Wales Police said the force’s thoughts were with Mr Bush, his family and girlfriend.
“While we recognise that Dylan Thomas’ sentence of 19 years’ imprisonment won’t bring William back, we do hope that this outcome goes some way to allowing the family to grieve and help in some way with their heartbreak,” she said.
Chris Evans from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the level of violence inflicted upon Mr Bush was “terrifying” and “led to the tragic death of a young man”.
