A KILLER has relived the moment he mowed down his victim with a van.
Ryan Willicombe from Newbury later told a friend: “I hope he dies,” as 19-year-old Sheldon Lewcock lay fatally injured.
But, giving evidence from the witness box at Reading Crown Court on Tuesday, April 23. Mr Willicombe expressed regret.
He told jurors: “I was just being angry.
“I think about it quite often; I regret it.
“I think about his family and what they’re going through.”
The prosecution has now closed its case in the trial of Ryan Willicombe from Home Straight, Newbury, who admits causing death by dangerous driving but denies murdering Mr Lewcock in Tilehurst on August 4, 2022.
The court has heard Mr Lewcock had been out motorcycling with friends when Mr Willicombe allegedly used his van as a missile and struck him head on.
He also clipped another youth with his wing mirror, Mr Lewcock’s half brother Kayden Williams, with whom he had been feuding.
Philip Evans, prosecuting, had read aloud text conversations following the incident between Mr Willicombe, a family member and a friend, Dion Mitchell, as he fled to his grandfather’s house in South Wales.
Mr Mitchell asked: “You all good?”
Mr Willicombe replied: “Man’s calm still.
“Hopefully he dies.”
Mr Mitchell warned: “Trust me but at the same time you don’t want to ride bird, G - not worth it.”
Mr Willicombe retorted: “True; hopefully he paralysed…love, my brother.”
In conversation with a relative, he said: “I’m gonna have to move country.
“Hopefully Sheldon dies; if he dies, I’ll laugh myself to sleep.”
As he travelled by rail from Newbury to South Wales, Mr Willicombe also texted friends and told one: “They wanted the war.”
Mr Willicombe added: “I can’t go to the slammer - not yet.”
He was arrested after police found him hiding in a cupboard at his grandfather’s house.
There was a disturbance in the public gallery as some of this evidence was read out.
Later, Home Office forensic pathologist Dr Ashley Fegan-Earl outlined the catastrophic injuries suffered by Mr Lewcock.
These included double fractures to each side of the jaw, a fractured breast bone, shattered thighs, shattered shins and a fractured pelvis.
In some of these injuries the broken bones had pierced the skin, the jury heard.
But Mr Lewcock ultimately succumbed, five days later, to systemic fat embolism, whereby marrow fat travels through the body and damages the organs.
This led to multiple organ failure and Mr Lewcock was declared brain dead five days after the incident.
In reliving the runup to the tragedy Mr Willicombe said he and a friend, Bailey Ingliss from Pangbourne, had headed to The Broadway in Thatcham for a Chinese takeout.
On their return to Tilehurst, they encountered Mr Lewcock and Kayden Williams, with whim Mr Willicombe had been feuding, on motorised bikes.
He testified: “I turned the steering wheel to the right with a quick jolt.”
Mr Willicombe insisted he had not intended to harm anyone, simply to frighten them.
He recalled his wing mirror clipping Mr Williams and added: “Sheldon just came out of nowhere and I collided with him.”
Mr Willicombe said he had later given “no comment” interviews to police on the advice of his solicitor.
The trial continues.
