Ryan Gibbons faces a life sentence for running over and killing ex-Navy officer Mike Samwell during a burglary in Manchester
Chilling CCTV footage shows the moment a murderer strolls to the pub the day after running over an ex-Royal Navy officer with his own car after a botched break-in.
Ryan Gibbons, 29, killed Mike Samwell outside his home in Chorlton, south Manchester, as the victim’s wife Jessica watched in horror.
Gibbons puffed out his cheeks and glanced towards his family as the verdict was delivered, while Mrs Samwell, supported by her husband’s family, quietly wept.
She held her husband’s hand, telling him she loved him as he lay dying from catastrophic crush injuries to his chest and heart after the burglary in April.
The couple were woken in the middle of the night as Gibbons broke into their £450,000 house snatching the keys to Mr Samwell’s Audi S3 sports car from the kitchen table.
Mr Samwell, a nuclear engineer after serving 12 years in the Royal Navy, dashed outside in his underwear, shouting ‘Get out of the car!’ – but was then run over.
MrSamwell died after he was run over by his own car. His wife Jessica, pictured on their wedding day, ran downstairs and saw the car driving over her husband before he lay dying holding her hand
Gibbons was trying to steal this car from outside Mr Samwell’s home during the nighttime raid
Just one day after the killing, CCTV captured Gibbons strolling to the pub in a cynical attempt to ‘act normal’.
Gibbons, of Chorlton, has pleaded guilty to burglary and aggravated vehicle taking but he denied murder on April 23.
However, the jury at Manchester Crown Court took less than four hours to convict him. He now faces a mandatory life sentence.
Raymond Davies, 21, who helped in the burglary, was convicted of manslaughter and taking a vehicle without consent. He pleaded guilty to burglary at an earlier hearing.
The victim’s widow, father and brother have sat through the three-week trial.
Sobbing Mrs Samwell told the jury: ‘When I got to him he had tyre marks across his chest.
‘I was shouting, ‘Help! Help! Somebody help me!’ I was just telling him that I loved him and holding his hand.’
Raymond Davies (left), who also took part in the burglary, was convicted of manslaughter. Gibbons’ girlfriend Stacey Hughes (right) was cleared of assisting an offender
Gibbons had told the jury he did not see Mr Samwell or deliberately run over him, but heard ‘screaming’ and thought, ‘something had gone under the wheel’ before speeding off. He said the plan was to sell the stolen car for £2,000.
Speaking after the verdicts today, Detective Chief Inspector Lewis Hughes said: ‘How many of us would have done the same thing in Mike’s position, protecting our home and our loved ones from people like Gibbons and Davies.
‘Instead of calling for help, or turning themselves in, these men actively chose to evade police after Gibbons took Samwell’s car and left Mike fighting for his life.
‘The word tragedy is used too often these days, but no other word seems right to describe the utter devastation this pair left behind in their determination to steal from the Samwells.’
Earlier the court heard how Gibbons, a £600-a-week concrete floor contractor, who does not hold a driving licence, had been taking cocaine and drinking on the night Mr Samwell died.
Police at the scene after Mr Samwell was killed outside his home in April this year
Gibbons returned home then went to buy some cannabis but came across Raymond Davies sitting in his BMW with two other men he refused to name.
Gibbons claimed talk turned to doing a burglary to steal a ‘nice car’ to sell for £2,000 and he suggested the Samwell’s house because of the Audi.
He was arrested in Scotland less than a week after the killing. He had driven the car off at speeds of up to 90mph, before he crashed into a curb.
Both defendants will be sentenced on Wednesday morning.
Gibbons’ girlfriend Stacey Hughes, 28, also of Chorlton, was found not guilty of assisting an offender.