Stourbridge stabbings: Aaron Barley admits murder of Tracey Wilkinson and son Pierce
A down-and-out cocaine user today admitted slaughtering the mother of two he once described as the 'mother I never had.'
Tracey Wilkinson - a former British Latin American ballroom dancing champion - took pity on rough sleeper Aaron Barley and paid for this act of compassion with both her life and that of her 13-year-old son Pierce.
The 24-year-old, with a history of violence, pleaded guilty to the two murders when he appeared at Birmingham Crown Court this afternoon.
He had previously admitted the attempted murder of 50-year-old volunteer charity worker Mrs Wilkinson's husband Peter, aged 47.
More analysis on the killings that rocked the community
Barley, of no fixed address, had been fed, financed and employed by the couple after she spotted him sheltering in a cardboard box outside a Stourbridge supermarket in March last year.
She took him to an addiction clinic in Lye where she had been helped to overcome a drink problem.
But he was sacked when drugs sent him 'off the rails' within a few months of him starting the labourer's job at one of the businesses run by Mr Wilkinson in Newport, South Wales. His boss said the parting had been ‘amicable.’
WATCH: Lydia and Peter Wilkinson describe the horrific day
He also lost a flat found for him by the Wilkinson family who now, inexplicably, became the target of his hatred.
One theory is that Barley may have seen the cancelling of his mobile phone contract, which was being paid for him, as the final break between them.
On March 30 he lay in wait armed with a knife in the back garden of their Greyhound Lane, Stourbridge home until Mr Wilkinson took the family's pet dog Mandy for her regular morning walk.
Barley let himself into the house and crept upstairs where he slaughtered Mrs Wilkinson and her son Pierce.
She was certified dead at the scene while the Redhill School pupil passed away shortly after reaching hospital.
The loner - dressed all in black - then hid in the kitchen, knowing that Mr Wilkinson would return through the back door.
Barley ambushed the businessman as he entered the property, screaming 'die you b******' while plunging the blade of the knife into the defenceless man six times.
The defendant, who had a history of violence, left him to die and escaped in the victim's Range Rover but close-to-death Mr Wilkinson managed to raise the alarm as the attacker drove in aimless circles around the area.
Mr Wilkinson was able to tell emergency crews the name of the attacker and the registration number of the getaway car before being rushed to hospital where emergency surgery saved his life.
Barley crashed into a pursuing police car and careered into a wall before being arrested following a short foot chase close to the scene of the crime and barely 30 minutes after the bloodbath. The murder weapon was found in the wrecked vehicle.
He refused to take a blood test that would have shown if he was drunk or on drugs at the time and never gave police an explanation for the murder spree.
Mr and Mrs Wilkinson's 19-year-old daughter Lydia was studying at Bristol University when tragedy struck and is now helping her father come to terms with his injuries and cope with the enormity of their loss.
He confessed that although making a good recovery physically the mental scars will be with him for the rest of his life.
They have returned to the house where it happened, determined not to let Barley's incomprehensible attack take anything else from the family he was determined to destroy.
Barley will be sentenced at the same court tomorrow.
