Berkshire pensioner: killed burglar ‘came here to kill us’

A pensioner who shot dead a burglar armed with a machete and a grenade has claimed he would have been killed if had he not pulled the trigger first.

Speaking outside his caravan home, with a new door fitted as a result of the fatal shooting, Reuben Gregory said the fateful night of the burglar killing had ruined his life.

Although the 72-year-old maintained he never intended to hurt his attacker, he insisted it proved to be a case of kill or be killed.

Officers found a rucksack next to Wayne Digby’s lifeless body, containing a machete, mallet, cable ties and the ingredients for a crude Molotov cocktail made out of half a tennis ball, a flammable liquid and a rag.

‘From what I was told by the police and from what I heard in the courtroom, looking at what he had – he came here to kill [him and his sister Cathy],’ said Gregory.

‘He came for trouble, he came to harm us, no question about it.

‘I told the police at the time and I’ll tell you again, I only wanted to scare him away, that’s all I wanted to do. I wouldn’t want to harm or injure anybody.

‘That’s not who we are, we’re just normal, ordinary people. If I wanted to hurt people I wouldn’t wait to be broken into – I’d go out and do it.

‘That’s why I put the gun down and fired it on the deck. If I’d pointed it up I thought I might have hit him so I pointed it down low, but the police said he must have been crouching just in front of the door which is how I hit him.’

Although the Crown Prosecution Service decided to drop the homicide case against him, given the terrifying circumstances, he described the damage that pulling the trigger had had upon him following the incident in woodland at Colnbrook, Berkshire.

Wayne Digby was shot dead by Gregory as he tried to burgle his home in Colnbrook, Berkshire

‘When I was locked up in Maidenhead Police Station I was as sick as a pig, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep,’ he added.

‘The only thing I had in there was a cup of tea.

‘It’s not nice knowing you’ve hurt someone and that’s something I think about everyday. He should have woken up, alive, in his bed that morning.

‘All I ever wanted to do was scare him off. I’m really sorry that he died, I didn’t know the person.

‘The whole thing has completely destroyed my life. It was just one second that changed my sister’s and my lives for ever.’

However, had he not pulled the trigger of his unlicensed 1972 12-gauge Sable double-barrelled side-by side shotgun he would not have seen it through the night, he claimed.

‘He would have killed us, definitely, that’s why he was here,’ he added.

‘If he’d have got through the door I wouldn’t be telling you this today – me and my sister Cathy would both be dead. He meant to kill us.

‘Why would he have brought all that stuff if he didn’t want to use it. He took time to plan to do us harm. I can’t believe that anyone could do that.’

He claimed that up to four people were involved in the plot to attack his caravan but when they managed to get out of their home, there was only one man left.

Along the path that led from the bypass to his caravan, bouquets of dead flowers and a deflated balloon last night marked the spot where Digby was found dead. He had been shot in the chest.

Gregory lives in the caravan with his sister Cathy. He lives on the land with permission from the owner

‘After hearing noises outside I poked my shotgun through a hole in the door. I listened but it was all quiet,’ he explained.

‘I held it there for as long as I dared and then I pulled the trigger, that was it.

‘It took me a couple of minutes just to get out the caravan because of what the burglar done to the door and then my sister and I walked down the path towards the Colnbrook bypass.

‘I had been fast asleep in the caravan at the time but I woke up and my sister was screaming her head off – she was shouting “Get away from the caravan, leave us alone”.

‘The people outside were laughing, they were enjoying themselves and that’s the honest gospel truth.

‘I looked over and there was a person’s arm through the bottom of the caravan door. He was holding a knife and was thrusting it back and forth – if it had cut you it would have gone straight through you. It was a big knife.

‘Then it all went quiet. I listened at the door to make sure there was nobody there and that was it.’

Gregory says he spent his life doing odd jobs including scrap-metal dealing, fruit-picking and farm labouring but lives off a weekly pension of just under £160.

He said he was told by the land owner that he was allowed to keep the caravan and use it on the land with his permission and only applied for shotgun certificate years ago because he wanted to take it elsewhere to go clay-pigeon shooting or game hunting.

Gregory was charged with possession of a firearm without a licence, which he admitted when he appeared before magistrates in Slough 

Gregory was charged with possession of a firearm without a licence, which he admitted when he appeared before magistrates in Slough

‘About four years after my father died, around 1983, me and my brother were out and three people came here in the day time,’ he explained.

‘They tied my mother up and took all of her jewellery and any money we had at that point. The only reason I have the shotgun is for my own protection.

‘Look at what else is going on in the world today. People are beating up old people in the street.’ 

The plot of land, which contained four old, rusty vans – destroyed by a lack of use – did not seem a likely burglary target, but Gregory believed a local legend was greatly exaggerated.

‘The police said [the attacker] thought we were multi-millionaires and he’d come to pay us a visit,’ he explained.

‘Someone’s said let’s pay them a visit, we’ll have a bit of that.

‘It was all blown out of proportion. If we had any kind of money we wouldn’t live here.’

Gregory was charged with possession of a firearm without a licence, which he admitted when he appeared before magistrates in Slough. 

He was remanded on bail to appear at Reading Crown Court in December for sentencing and could face up to five years in jail.