80-year-old murderer handed third life sentence for prison stabbing

Telegraph

23-06-2025

An elderly convicted killer who slit another prisoner's throat in a revenge attack has been handed his third life sentence.
Brian Wade, 80, told a judge he was 'quite happy' to receive another maximum sentence and was 'too old to worry about it' as he accepted that he would die in jail.
Wade was serving a life sentence for the manslaughter of a young man in 1998 when he attacked fellow inmate Robert Kendrick.
He cut his throat with an 'improvised shank' made from a matchstick cutter.
Kendrick, 40, was airlifted to hospital but survived.
Wade denied attempted murder but admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, stating he wanted to leave a mark 'for him to remember me by'.
Judge William Mousley KC said Wade was 'clearly a dangerous offender, even at the age of 80'.
Previous convictions
Simon Jones, prosecuting, said: 'He has a number of previous convictions for serious violence – a grievous bodily harm in 1965, a life sentence for murder in 1966, a section 18 wounding with intent in 1972 and a life sentence for manslaughter in 1998.
'That sentence is the one he was serving at the time of this offence.'
His first killing is believed to have been a neighbour called Edwin Cardwell, 21, in Rotherham, South Yorks, whom he bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer.
The 1998 killing is thought to be Johnathan Abell, a 22-year-old in Nottingham whom Wade killed with a machete and a knife before handing himself in to police.
Relationship had turned sexual
The court heard that Wade and Kendrick had known each other for about 10 months at the time of the attack at HMP Guys Marsh in Shaftesbury, Dorset, on Oct 28 2022.
Kendrick said they had 'bonded' over their mutual love of art and their relationship had turned sexual at one point for about two months.
But by October Kendrick was in a relationship with someone else and he told the other prisoner about the previous relationship with Wade.
Wade lured Kendrick to his cell. Once there, he tied his hands and feet with shoe laces before cutting his throat with three deliberate movements. The wound came within a centimetre of a main vein in the neck.
Mr Jones read a victim impact statement from Kendrick, who has since been released from prison.
He said: 'I suffer awful night terrors and replay the incident in my mind. I see Brian on top of me slitting my throat while I lay in a pool of my blood, Brian giggling to himself and rubbing his hands together.'
Wade, who represented himself, wrote a letter to the judge before the sentencing hearing to explain the motivation for the attack.
He wrote: 'He put a mark on my name and good reputation so I put a mark on his neck as a reminder of what he had done.'
Wade told Bournemouth Crown Court: 'I'm quite happy with a life sentence. I'm too old to be worrying about these things, I place myself at your mercy. I will die here in prison, which is fine by me.'
Judge Mousley gave Wade another life sentence with a minimum term of 10 and a half years before he can be considered for parole.
The court heard that Wade's letter also said that he knew who had stolen his watch and had 'now marked time on him'. The judge asked for the prison to be notified about this threat.