Sports therapist found guilty of Anglesey crossbow murder

A sports therapist has been found guilty of murdering a retired lecturer by shooting him with a crossbow at his remote island home.

Terence Whall, 39, targeted Gerald Corrigan, 74, as his victim adjusted his satellite dish outside his house in Anglesey, north Wales, in the early hours of Good Friday – 19 April – last year.

The bolt passed completely through Corrigan’s body, causing terrible internal damage including bruising the heart. He was rushed to hospital but gangrene set in and he died almost a month later of multiple organ failure.

A ballistics expert and pathologist concluded the shooter must have been only 10 metres away, probably in the field in front of the house and hiding behind a wall.

Whall denied having anything to do with Corrigan’s death but police were able to establish that a Land Rover he used was near his victim’s home at the time of the shooting and on the previous night, when the prosecution allege he was “scoping out” the property.

Peter Rouch QC, prosecuting, told the jury at Mold crown court it may never be known why Corrigan was murdered.

But the court heard that before his death Corrigan and his partner, Marie Bailey, 64, had allegedly been conned out of £250,000 by a man called Richard Wyn Lewis, who had previous convictions for fraud.

The court heard that Whall had been arrested at the Anglesey home of Lewis, who remains under investigation, on 31 May last year following an incident that the jury was told was a dispute over money. Rouch said Whall’s association with Lewis “may be of significance”.

Whall was arrested in connection with Corrigan’s death on 25 June. He initially lied to police and said he had been at his home on Anglesey at the time of the shooting, but later said he had been near Corrigan’s home because he was having a sexual encounter with a friend. The friend denied this.