A farmer has been found guilty of murdering his lodger and hiding the body, which was discovered inside a concrete-filled barrel nearly six years after the man went missing. Christopher Wright killed Richard Dyson, 55, in November 2019 after Dyson allegedly stole a gun from him, before enlisting childhood friend Karl Schwalbe to help dispose of the remains on a farm near Barnsley. Wright was convicted of murder along with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, preventing a lawful burial and six firearms offences, while Schwalbe was found guilty of perverting the course of justice.

Dyson had been living in his car outside Wright's cottage in Hoyland, doing odd jobs in exchange for board, until his phone went silent on 17 November 2019. Prosecutors said Wright, described as a "weapons fanatic", shot Dyson with a shotgun after discovering he had kept a valuable machine gun found at the farm. His remains were eventually found in a padlocked trailer alongside Wright's ID, with phone records, CCTV footage and a cement purchase helping investigators link both men to the cover-up before Wright and Schwalbe's denials were undermined by covertly recorded conversations.