A serial burglar will serve at least 27 years in prison for twice running over a former Royal Navy officer in a botched house burglary as his wife watched.

Ryan Gibbons, 29, reversed over Michael Samwell, 35, then drove over him a second time as the former serviceman tried to stop his £36,000 Audi S3 sports car being stolen in April.

Gibbons gave no reaction, but there were gasps from his family in the public gallery, and one said: “You’re joking”, before his father shouted “Love you, son” as he was taken down to the cells at Manchester crown court.

Moments earlier, Samwell’s wife Jessica had read a poignant victim impact statement to the court speaking of her “overwhelming grief for the future we will never have” as she watched her husband die.

She cried as she told the court of her devastation at “the children we will never share”. She spoke from the witness box in a halting voice as Gibbons and co-defendant Raymond Davies lowered their heads and did not look at her.

She said: “The loss of such a caring, loyal and warm man who supported me for 10 years is too much to bear. The hole he’s left becomes even more tangible.

“I now know the days get harder, the physical pain, loss and longing for Mike has not ended. The loss of Mike has felt catastrophic.”



The couple were woken in the night as burglars broke into their house in Chorlton, south Manchester, snatching the keys to the car from the kitchen table.

Samwell, a nuclear engineer who served 12 years in the forces, rushed outside in his boxer shorts, shouting “Get out of the car!”, followed by his wife who saw him go under the wheels as Gibbons sped off.

She held his hand and told him she loved him as he lay dying from “catastrophic” chest and heart injuries.

She told the judge that she had been unable to return to work or the home they shared, saying: “The stark reminder of what happened on that night felt like too much to cope with.

From left: Ryan Gibbons, 29, and Raymond Davies, 21. Photograph: Greater Manchester police/PA

“It feels like no one will ever understand. The last image I have of Mike lying on the ground, groaning in pain, holding his hand will stay with me for the rest of my life.

“The man who meant more to me than anything in the world had been mindlessly and brutally killed.”



Handing Gibbons a life sentence with a minimum tariff of 27 years, Mr Justice William Davis told Gibbons: “He was killed in front of her eyes and died as she was holding his hand on the driveway of his own home.

“You are a dangerous young man, you are a regular burglar and on this occasion, to get what you wanted, you quite ruthlessly killed a man.”

Gibbons had denied murder but admitted manslaughter, insisting that he did not realise he had run over Samwell.

But the jury did not believe him and found him guilty of murder, having heard evidence of how Samwell’s cries could be heard by neighbours and a CCTV camera some distance away.

The court heard Gibbons had a string of previous convictions dating to 2007, when he was given a community order for a burglary.

He was also convicted of common assault and “dishonesty offences”, between 2008 and 2011.



In February 2015, he spent 12 months behind bars for an attempted burglary. In January of this year, three months before he killed Samwell, he was handed a community order after he was caught stealing wallets and phones at the Isle of Wight festival.



Davies, 21, who drove Gibbons to the address to steal the car, was sentenced to eight years after being convicted of manslaughter, burglary and taking a vehicle without consent.

• This article was amended on 1 and 2 November 2017. A picture caption on an earlier version said Ryan Gibbons was 26, rather than 29. In addition, the spelling of the Isle of Wight has been corrected.

