Judith Rhead was a good mother.
She lived for her son and constantly forgave him even when he stole from her.
The pensioner’s diaries revealed her pain at repeatedly being lied to by son Dale Morgan. Yet despite the lies and the let-downs Mrs Rhead was unswerving in her loyalty, support, and kindness. For this she paid the ultimate price.
Read more: Recap the sentencing of Dale Morgan in full
In early December last year, with Wales – like most of the world – in a cycle of lockdowns and uncertainty amid the frightening Covid-19 pandemic, Mrs Rhead opened the doors of her Pembroke Dock home to her son. Within a matter of days he had savagely battered her to death with a hammer, smashing her repeatedly with the weapon until she lay bloodied and dead.
For weeks she simply lay in the home that should have been her sanctuary, spared the dignity of a decent burial by her loved ones and instead left to decompose at the house where her apparently remorseless son went on about his business. Mrs Rhead, a well-liked and respected woman who relied on a mobility scooter to get around, was – unsurprisingly – missed by those who liked her and cared about her.
Only child Morgan should have been first and foremost among that group. Instead, though, he siphoned off thousands from his now-dead mother’s account and told a series of lies to those who inquired after her. She was, he lied, in hospital, or visiting a friend in Aberystwyth, or self-isolating due to Covid.
As December gave way to 2021, and the bleak winter of lockdown continued, neighbours in the Pembrokeshire community where valued 68-year-old Mrs Rhead was a familiar face continued to note her absence – so much so that they contacted the police.
When an officer called the house he encountered Morgan who “in effect fobbed him off” with a confected story of his mother being sick and self-isolating in bed.
Less than a month later, on February 20, those concerns arose again and this time officers visited the property. Morgan was out and there was no answer – but when officers looked through the window of Mrs Rhead’s bedroom they saw her body.
She remained, decomposing, kneeling on the floor with her right arm on her bed, her head covered in a plastic bag that was bound by a cable. There was blood on the bed and a bloody hammer, bearing “fatty deposits”, on the floor nearby.
Realising the jig was up Morgan handed himself in at Haverfordwest police station the same night. Yet while he had given himself up he didn’t seek to make things entirely straightforward, declining to provide logins for his social media accounts and refusing to let police access his financial and health details. In his interview he simply answered each question to him with two words: “No comment.”
So who was the enigmatic and unsympathetic character they were faced with? A thief, an apparent drug user, and someone who repeatedly took advantage of his mother’s kindness despite 43 years of dedication from her.
Morgan advanced little by way of mitigation during his sentencing hearing and little is known about him. He’d never been in significant trouble before. His only prior brush with the law before his murder conviction came two decades ago, in 2001, when he received a caution for dishonesty having embezzled money from his mother’s savings account. Mrs Rhead, though, did not wish to press charges.
The court heard the pair spent a significant amount of time together and carried out tasks for each other, at least in the run-up to the murder, and there was a level of “mutual interdependency” between them. They both suffered from chronic pain, defence barrister John Hipkin QC told Monday’s hearing.
In terms of his drug use prosecutor Paul Lewis QC referred to a note written by Mrs Rhead which was discovered by police. In it she talked about “huge lies”, drug addiction, and the theft of money and medication. Officers also found entries in the dead woman’s diary where she talked about being upset that her son was taking money from her purse.
A week before Christmas a woman who looked after Mrs Rhead’s dog, Ruby, each day noted when she dropped the pet back in the evening that Morgan was lying on the sofa watching TV with the table in front of him covered in needles and white powder. Morgan could “hardly stand or speak” and his eyes were “red and sore” when he came to the door, the court heard.
But it appears to have been money – evidently for drugs – that lay at the heart of this grotesque killing.
As part of their investigation police officers probed Mrs Rhead’s financial affairs and found that between December 3 and February 11 her son had made regular and repeated transfers of money from his mother’s bank account to his own – totalling almost £2,900. Over the same time period he withdrew more than £2,500 in cash from his account.
When it came to sentencing Judge Paul Thomas QC said one of the most significant factors of the case was the fact the defendant needed money to fund his abuse of legal and illegal substances while Mrs Rhead’s diaries showed how upset she was that he was stealing from her.
Judge Thomas said the thefts began with money being taken from his mother’s purse but that from December 3, when Mrs Rhead was still alive, Morgan began taking money from her bank account – something he continued to do for several weeks as she lay, dead and decomposing, in the house where he went on living.
“Precisely what happened, of course, can’t be said but I believe she confronted you about your thefts from her account which is why you killed her so brutally,” the judge said.
There can be no justifiable reason for such an obscene act of violence. Also seemingly absent in this case is any prior violence or warning sign which – coupled with Morgan’s inability to come forward and be honest, save for his guilty plea – makes such an atrocious crime all the more incomprehensible. As Mrs Rhead’s niece said in a family statement read to the sentencing hearing: “We will never understand why he did this. Dale was Judith’s life and was the person she loved the most.”
The judge himself elaborated on the senselessness and utter callousness of what had unfolded as he ordered that Morgan serve at least 21 years and six months in prison before being eligible to apply for parole.
“You were your mother’s only child,” he said. “She adored you. She stuck up for you even when you stole from her on a previous occasion. She tried to help you with your problems.
“She worried about your substance misuse. She let you live with her despite the disruption and the anxiety your presence in the house no doubt caused her. In short you were pretty much her life. You repaid those 43 years of devotion by bludgeoning her to death with a hammer – not once, not twice, but not fewer than 14 times to the head, intending to kill her.”
If you or someone you know is affected by domestic abuse visit the Live Fear Free website or call the helpline on 0808 80 10 800.
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