Mum tells of her family's anguish as son's murderer is jailed for 35 years
The mother of a murdered Plymouth man fought back tears as she described the ‘living hell’ that her family had been through.
Janet Griffiths was speaking outside Truro Crown Court after drugs mule Thomas Haigh was jailed for life for blasting her son David Griffiths and another man, Brett Flournoy, to death.
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Janet Griffiths
Former cage-fighter Haigh, aged 26, must serve a minimum of 35 years for the killings on a remote Cornish farm.
Ross Stone, 28, who was cleared of the men’s murders, will serve five years after admitting burning the men’s bodies before burying them in their van following the shooting at his home, Sunny Corner Farm, in Trenance Downs near St Austell.
The bodies of Griffiths, a 35-year-old father-of-three originally from Plymouth, and Flournoy, a 31-year-old boxer and pub landlord from Merseyside, were unearthed after Stone confessed to having disposed of their corpses.
The court heard how Stone and Haigh owed the dead men around £40,000 in drug debts.
Haigh and Stone’s four-week trial heard that the victims were gangland enforcers working for an IRA gang which “ran” Liverpool’s illegal drugs trade.
Speaking outside court, David Griffith’s mother Janet fought back tears as she spoke of the torment her family had been put through, saying the decision to acquit Stone was “hard for us to accept”.
“Our family has been devastated by the loss of our beloved David and the horrific way in which he was murdered,” she said.
“As a family we never imagined we would be standing here today and David would be gone, it really has been a living hell.
“We have had to accept the horrific way in which David was taken from us but also had to endure six weeks of worrying and looking for David. To find out that he was then murdered, burned and buried was truly too much to comprehend.
“We have had to endure months of unpleasant stories and statements being made about David, most of which have been completely untrue. This has put immense stress on all of our family but we do know that those who were close to David know the truth and the real Dave.
“We shall forever cherish the happy memories we have of him, he is missed every single day and will forever be loved.”
Passing sentence at Truro Crown Court, Mr Justice Mackay told Haigh he was an “arrogant young man” who had got out of his depth in the criminal underworld.
“These were bad men, but they were bad men with the right not to be killed – because trading in drugs does not carry the death penalty,” he said.
“You were attracted to the gangster way of life, you convinced yourself you were a big boy playing in the big league.
“But I found your erratic behaviour made you unsuited to this elusive trade.
“This was no more than a result of your chosen lifestyle. You knew the rules of the criminal club you joined and you broke them.”
The jury took less than three hours to find Haigh, formerly of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, guilty of two counts of murder.
Stone had previously pleaded guilty to two charges of obstructing a coroner.
13 Comments
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by ajws70
Wednesday, February 15 2012, 9:10PM
“by ajws70
Tuesday, February 14 2012, 4:11PM
.
"35 years for doing the world a favour, i dont understand the sentencing laws when child rapists/ child murderers and terrorists get less than someone who is obviously threatened and frightened by these type of people. If someone threatened my family and i had a gun i would almost certainly do the same as haigh and take the consequences.
The two supposed victims and i use that term very loosely as i dont really see them as victims were obviously putting the frighteners on haigh and stone and got what they deserved.
As for their families telling us what lovely family men they were, maybe the families of haigh and stone should be asked what their thoughts on this are seeing as they were paid a visit by flournoy and griffiths, i'm sure that was a friendly encounter....not. As the old proverb states, you reap what you sow."”
by jabbathebutt
Wednesday, February 15 2012, 7:40PM
“Sympathy for anyones loss of a child - no matter how old they get ,they are still your kids . But even more sympathy if she had dignified it that anyone dealing with this kind of stuff should stop it as it is wrong on all counts due the misery caused from top to bottom.”
by nout4nout
Wednesday, February 15 2012, 5:33PM
“i wonder what the dead men would have done to the others if they just said "we can't pay you the
£40,000". Same result but the other way round I imagine.
Unfortunately they will have already been replaced by someone else in the supply chain”
by louise433
Wednesday, February 15 2012, 5:20PM
“Working for the IRA - Traitor.
Drug dealer - Taliban fund raiser.
Sympathy - Dictionary between **** and Syphilis.”
by renegade2009
Wednesday, February 15 2012, 3:52PM
“its a shame they poor guys died the way they did but lets not forget they were involed with drugs
and drugs are bad ,,,,,,, let this be a warning of what mite happen ..........”
by Codebreaker
Wednesday, February 15 2012, 10:33AM
“What did Griffiths do for a living, other than drug dealing? If he didn't have another profession, where did he tell his mother he was getting money from?”
by TheMercenary
Wednesday, February 15 2012, 10:00AM
“Agree with all the previous comments. However unaware of her son's criminal activities Mrs Griffiths may have been, once she knew about them, why didn't she keep a low profile? Why even talk to the media? Any decent person would have been too ashamed to challenge the courts decision on the sentencing, knowing of her son's involvement. He was a criminal who peddled filth, ruining the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of people. "Just desserts" has someone has already stated.”
by ronaldfrancis
Wednesday, February 15 2012, 9:59AM
“you son was dealing in death killing people children and you and your family did not know what he did to make money ?????? so many have died from what he did and all for money greed and power over others .. he paid a hight price and so did all the other who have died and the ones still out there waiting to die from your sons trade i feel sorry for you and all the other who your son killed ..”
by northernchimp
Wednesday, February 15 2012, 8:55AM
“Everybody got what they deserved - apart from those left behind. Mrs Griffiths, you have my sympathy.”
by pogle63
Wednesday, February 15 2012, 8:41AM
“I`ll stand by my comment yesterday whcih was: "Drugs - dealing in misery- sounds like everyone got what they deserved at the end of the day. Its a shame people who operate in this underworld don`t give much thought to what effect it has on those they leave behind when it all goes wrong. Or what effect drugs have on society as whole.
Deal in misery - deal with misery. Sympathy Zero."”