Overview
- The jury at Sheffield Crown Court returned guilty verdicts on 28 July 2026, finding 73‑year‑old Christopher Wright guilty of murder and multiple firearms offences.
- Police discovered Richard Dyson’s remains in July 2025 concealed inside a blue plastic barrel filled with concrete at Alderthwaite Farm and forensics confirmed the DNA match.
- Investigators used a mobile‑phone review, CCTV, bank‑card purchases and a farm diary to place Wright at the scene and to show he moved a trailer where the barrel was later found.
- Firearms and ammunition seized from Wright’s home were forensically linked to the type used in the killing and prosecutors said his firearm licence had been revoked in 2016.
- Wright’s long‑time friend Karl Schwalbe was convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice for helping conceal the crime, and both men will be sentenced on 6 August, closing a six‑year period of uncertainty for Dyson’s family.