Army veteran shot landlady dead at point blank range 'because he didn't kill anyone while serving in Afghanistan'

Aaron Wilkinson, 24, shot dead Judith Garnett at her home with shotgun

He claims he 'went crazy' and the incident was manslaughter, not murder

A former soldier who served in Afghanistan may have shot his landlady to experience what it was like to kill someone, a court was told yesterday.

Aaron Wilkinson, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress after his tour of duty, blasted mother-of-two Judith Garnett, 52, to death at point-blank range.

He had become ‘obsessed’ with his six months in Afghanistan, where he suffered a minor wound but ‘seemed disappointed at not having fired a shot’ there, jurors were told.

Suspect: Soldier Aaron Wilkinson is on trial for murder after shooting dead his boss, farm owner and mother-of-two Judith Garnett, with a shotgun



The 24-year-old ‘was desperate to see what it was like to shoot someone – something he had not managed to achieve in Afghanistan’, it was alleged.

He told police he went ‘crazy’ when Mrs Garnett, who was also his employer, told him he was ‘lazy, thick and cruel’ and ordered him to move out of her house in Leeds, where he had lived rent-free, Bradford Crown Court heard.

After shooting the widow, killing her instantly, Wilkinson dialled 999 and told the operator: ‘I have done something absolutely terrible... I just had a moment of madness.’



Richard Mansell, QC, prosecuting, said Wilkinson served in Afghanistan in 2009, and ‘was proud of the fact that he had been injured’ and carried around in a jar the piece of shrapnel that struck him.

He claimed to have been one of a group investigated by military police over an incident in which Afghan civilians had been killed.

He became ‘animated’ when talking about guns and would hold a shotgun as if it were an army rifle.

Mr Mansell added: ‘He spoke about the fact that he had not managed to kill any enemy soldier while in action and seemed disappointed.’

A possible reason for the killing was Wilkinson’s ‘fascination with guns and killing and a desire to see what it was like to shoot someone’. Another was that he was fed up with criticism and lost his temper, the jury heard.

A forensics officer pictured outside Mrs Garnett's house shortly after she was killled

Wilkinson had worked for Mrs Garnett for ten years at her game farm, sharing the bungalow where she lived with her two sons. She had put up a ‘Welcome Home’ banner when he returned from war.

Mr Mansell described the widow as ‘a no-nonsense woman’. At times she was said to be disappointed about how little work Wilkinson was doing.

He denies murder but admits manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility in January last year. The jury heard his defence would be that his responsibility was ‘substantially affected’ by Asperger’s syndrome and post-traumatic stress reaction.

Mr Mansell rejected Wilkinson’s explanation that he suddenly lost control. ‘This was murder,’ he said.