Man 'buried in barrel of concrete on farm' - court

A man who was missing for six years was found dead and dismembered in a concrete-filled barrel on a farm near to where he had been living, a court has heard.

Two men have gone on trial at Sheffield Crown Court over the death of Richard Dyson, 55, who disappeared in November 2019.

Dyson's remains were discovered in the barrel on a trailer at Alderthwaite Farm in Barnsley in June 2025 after prosecutors said he had been shot.

Christopher Wright, 73, has been charged with his murder, preventing lawful burial and several firearms offences and Karl Schwalbe, 72, has been charged with perverting the course of justice.

Wright, of Hoyland, denies all the offences and has also pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and possessing a prohibited weapon, firearms and ammunition without certificates.

The court heard he and co-defendant Schwalbe, of Dike Hill, Low Harley, had been close friends since the age of 10.

Prosecution barrister Peter Moulson KC told the court Wright, who at the time lived at Parkside Cottage, on Sheffield Road, was a "weapons fanatic and collector" who kept an illegal stash of weapons, including shotguns, knives, bows and arrows, and manufacturing equipment, at his farm in Hoyland.

Dyson, who was "in effect Wright's lodger", slept in a car on the farm and the pair were friends, with Dyson cooking for Wright and helping with tasks such as building walls, cleaning the driveway, mending the tractor, and working in the orchard.

However, the prosecution said Wright became "greatly angered" when Dyson stole one of the guns to sell on and killed him "with a shotgun immediately to hand" before disposing of the body with the assistance of Schwalbe.

In a statement from Dyson's ex-partner, read out in court, the jury heard he told her several months before his disappearance he had found a machine gun at Wright's farm and kept it because it was "worth a lot of money", but was worried that Wright would know the gun was missing.

The court also heard Dyson suffered mental health problems, had a "chequered past", was "involved with some nasty people" and was secretive about friends.

On the night of Dyson's death, Wright called Schwalbe and the court was told Schwalbe "came quickly to the aid of his long-term friend" and they made a plan to conceal the body in the barrel.

"The pair conspired together to mislead police to try to defeat the investigation into what happened to Dyson," Moulson said.

He added: "They made a pact and embarked on a plan to dispose of the body then lied about it for six years."

Dyson had been shot and dismembered with several cuts, the prosecution said, before his body was put in the barrel of concrete and stored on a nearby farm.

The men were under suspicion by police in the six years before the skeletal remains were found.

Ian Ollerenshaw, who lives at the neighbouring Alderthwaite Farm, said he had noted in his diary that Wright phoned him on 20 November 2019 to ask if he could keep his old trailer at the farm "for a few weeks" while he "tidied up his own farm a bit" after its condition had irritated the landowners, the Wentworth Estate.

Ollerenshaw said he had agreed and Wright dropped the trailer off, towed by his Fordson Supermajor vintage tractor.

Ollerenshaw told the court his family had known the Wrights at the neighbouring farm for many years and shared the same landlord.

He said he looked through one of the trailer's flaps but only saw "wood and rubbish" and never went inside the trailer or was contacted by Wright about it again.

The trial continues.

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