A former butcher who dismembered his victim and concealed the body inside a concrete-filled barrel was told that “few ordinary people would have the stomach” to commit such a horrific act.

Farmer Christopher Wright, 73, was handed a minimum 35-year prison sentence after being convicted last month of murdering Richard Dyson, 55, who vanished in 2019, with the body remaining hidden for six years.

Dyson, who had been living in his car on Wright’s property in Hoyland, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, was reported missing by his daughter. What began as a missing persons inquiry eventually escalated into a full murder investigation, and last year officers discovered the concealed remains inside a barrel on a trailer.

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Dyson had carried out odd jobs for the farmer, but the relationship soured after Wright, a collector of antique firearms, suspected him of theft and selling off his belongings.

Wright shot him in the arm and chest before dismembering the body over the course of several days. He later purchased cement from a local builder’s merchant and concealed the remains inside a blue barrel, reports the Daily Star.

Wright then placed the barrel onto a trailer and persuaded an unsuspecting neighbor to store the vehicle, completely unaware of its grim contents.

Wright’s childhood friend, Karl Schwalbe, 72, was convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice for his role in covering up the crime and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Justice Cotter, presiding at Sheffield Crown Court, ruled that Wright must serve life with a minimum term of 35 years, minus time already spent on remand, and is expected to die behind bars. Speaking of what Wright did to his victim, the judge said, “You had worked as a butcher and were skilled enough to do such a terrible thing, something few ordinary people would have the stomach for.”

In her victim impact statement, Dyson’s daughter, Bethany Dainty, spoke of the anguish of not knowing what had happened to her father for such an extended period.

She said, “I couldn’t grieve because I did not know the truth.”

Following questioning by detectives on one occasion, Wright and Schwalbe were captured on camera in a police parking lot discussing CCTV footage that officers had collected.

And while police were searching his property, Wright was filmed in a hotel praying for absolution from God and hoping his weapons would not be discovered.

Christopher Dunn, representing Schwalbe, said it was “an error of Biblical proportions” not to tell the police what happened.

Wright was found guilty of murder, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, preventing a lawful burial, as well as firearms offenses.