Bradley Wall Murder: Drug addict jailed for 'barbaric' killing of 24-year-old at Leeds flat

Aiden Ramsdale was convicted by a jury at Leeds Crown Court following an eight-week trial which ended in January. His friend Patrick Mason was found not guilty of both murder and manslaughter.

Reporting restrictions were put in place by Judge Rodney Jameson KC following the verdict, because Ramsdale was facing another trial for a separate street robbery, that he has since admitted.

He was jailed for life today, and told he must serve a minimum of 33 years.

Mr Wall, 24, died outside Ramsdale’s flat on Fairford Avenue in Beeston in the early hours of June 23 last year.

He had either fallen or thrown from the second-floor window of the flat, before being badly beaten. He suffered more than 100 injuries. Paving slabs were dropped on his body and attempts made to set the body on fire. He was not found until later that day.

CCTV from the area, pieced together by police, found that Mr Wall had met the pair, whom he did not know, and had gone back to the flat, possibly to buy drugs.

Cameras at Hunslet Moor Primary School, opposite the flat, later caught Mr Wall falling from the window, and then Ramsdale and Mason around the front-yard area.

During the trial, which started in November, it was heard that both 25-year-old Ramsdale and 32-year-old Mason blamed each other for the killing. The Crown claimed it was a “joint enterprise”, with Mr Wall being robbed before he was killed.

It was heard that Ramsdale – who was seen on CCTV dropping paving slabs into the area where Mr Wall’s body lay – confessed the killing to his dad.

Caught on audio equipment during a remand visit, he then boasted to his father it was like an “ISIS-type killing”, referring to the brutal nature and the use of paving slabs.

Mason, meanwhile, said that he went along with Ramsdale out of fear, with Ramsdale saying the same of Mason.

The jury deliberated for 12 hours and 40 minutes before returning a unanimous guilty verdict for murder on Ramsdale.