A man has been given a life sentence after being convicted of the murder of a man whose battered body was found hidden under paving slabs and pallets outside an address in Leeds.
The victim, Bradley Wall, aged 24, was found in a stairwell to the basement of a house on Fairford Avenue, in the Hunslet Moor area of Beeston, on the afternoon of Thursday 23 June 2022.
A post mortem examination showed he had received more than 100 injuries, including a fractured skull, after falling from a first-floor window and being subjected to a serious assault.
Strangulation with the sleeve of a jumper or having pressure applied to his neck with a brick were both given as potential causes of his death.
Paving slabs had been dropped on his body and wooden pallets were used to partially conceal it. An attempt had been made to set his body on fire.
A murder investigation was launched, led by detectives from West Yorkshire Police’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Team.
Aiden Ramsdale, aged 25, who lived in one of the bedsits, and another man were both arrested on suspicion of murder. The other man was later found not guilty of murder and manslaughter after a trial at Leeds Crown Court.
CCTV enquiries tracking Mr Wall’s movements in the time leading up to his death, showed him encountering the two men nearby in Dewsbury Road at about 2:15am, before they all went to the house in Fairford Avenue, apparently for him to buy drugs.
Footage from a nearby CCTV camera showed a shadow, believed to be Mr Wall, falling to the ground from an upstairs window at 2:40am.
Then at 3:59am, CCTV showed a fire beginning to take hold in the spot where Mr Wall was found. Ramsdale and the other man were seen leaving the address shortly after the fire began to take hold.
They then visited the Jet petrol station, in Dewsbury Road, where Ramsdale had an altercation with staff over shoplifting, and a bank card, later identified as having been given to Mr Wall by a friend, was used.
CCTV then showed Ramsdale back at the scene picking up four paving slabs from a neighbouring property and dropping them down to where Mr Wall lay.
Ramsdale claimed Mr Wall had become violent and attacked them before falling out of the window. He also claimed Mr Wall had child abuse images on his phone but later admitted this was a lie during his trial.
Ramsdale was convicted of the murder after a trial at Leeds Crown Court that concluded in January.
Today (13 April 2023), he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 33 years. His sentence also included a 21-month term for a robbery in Beeston last June to which he pleaded guilty.
Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Inspector Suzanne Hall, said:
“Ramsdale murdered Bradley in appalling circumstances and used a sickening level of violence against him after only having met him for the first time just shortly before his death.
“What caused him to launch such a brutal attack on him remains unclear, and his account of what happened has been shown to be completely unreliable.
“Bradley was known to use drugs and sadly that appears to have been what brought him into contact with Ramsdale on the night he was murdered. Regardless of those circumstances, there can be absolutely no justification for what happened to him.
“Taking his life was totally unnecessary, and the horrific circumstances in which the murder occurred tells us all we need to know about the utter depravity of Ramsdale.
“Bradley’s family have been left completely devastated at his death in such sudden and violent circumstances and we hope it will give them at least some degree of comfort to know that the person responsible has had to answer for their actions.”
This post is based on a press release issued by West Yorkshire Police
Photos: Bradley Wall (left) was murdered by Aiden Ramsdale (right)
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