In the last week of July 2010, staff at a restaurant at Darley Abbey Mills in Derby were worried about their kitchen porter. Dave Matthews, 66, had not come to work since July 9. On July 25 he was found dead in the bath of his flat on Waterford Drive in Chaddesden, Derby. Five days later, Paul Hancock, 58, was found dead in the bath of another flat in the same block.
By then the man who lived among them had fled to the Cumbrian coast. Andrew Dawson, 47, had moved into the block only weeks earlier. He was a convicted murderer, released on life license after serving a sentence for stabbing a 91-year-old shopkeeper in his home town of Ormskirk, Lancashire, in 1981. In 2011 he admitted murdering both of his Derby neighbors, and a High Court judge ordered that he never be released.
Dawson was born in Ormskirk, West Lancashire, in 1962 and grew up on the town's Scott estate. According to his older brother, Malcolm, who spoke to the Liverpool Echo in 2011, he was in trouble with the police from a young age and constantly stole money. Malcolm Dawson also said his brother talked often about Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, and other murderers, and called them weak. Nothing in the sources opened describes Dawson's schooling, work or family life beyond this.
Henry Walsh was 91 and kept a shop in Ormskirk. He was frail, and it was rumored in the town that he kept money hidden in the shop. In 1981 Dawson, then 19, raided the shop looking for it. Walsh disturbed him and told him: "I know who you are."
Dawson took a bread knife and stabbed Walsh eleven times in the chest. Walsh also suffered a broken jaw, and Dawson tied a ligature around his neck before he left. He took small change from the till and Walsh's pension book, which he cashed for £50. The killing was the talk of the town. One Ormskirk man who was a student at the time told the Echo he remembered police going door to door along the route Dawson would have walked home from the town center to the Scott estate.
Dawson was arrested after he told a friend what he had done. In a statement to police he said: "I wish it was me, not him." He pleaded guilty to murder. In 1982, sentencing him to life imprisonment, Mr Justice Caulfield described him as a "desperate teenager" who had killed for money.
The sources do not agree on every detail of this first killing. BBC News reported that Walsh was killed in his flat; the Liverpool Echo reported that Dawson raided his shop. At the 2022 inquest into the Derby deaths, the coroner said the 1982 murder had been presented to the agencies supervising Dawson as a burglary gone wrong rather than as a premeditated killing, and that this information should have been shared with the housing agencies that later placed him.
Dawson was released on life license, which kept him under supervision and liable to be recalled to prison. He left HMP Sudbury, in Derbyshire, in 1999, according to the inquest and the Derby Telegraph; the Liverpool Echo gave the year as 2000.
He did not stay out long. The coroner's summary in 2022, as reported by the Derby Telegraph, set out three recalls. In October 2003 he was returned to prison over his use of alcohol, since regular alcohol testing was a condition of his license; he was released in April 2004. In February 2005 he was recalled for possessing a knife, and released in July 2007. In October 2007 he was recalled again over drinking and was released in September 2008. A list of key dates read at the opening of the inquest described the reasons as drug and alcohol problems, weapons offences and breaches of conditions such as a curfew. BBC News summarized the recalls as coming in 2003, 2004 and 2007. The Echo reported in 2011 that the authorities said they had acted correctly each time they let him out again.
After his release in 2008 Dawson was placed in a probation hostel in Derby. Probation officers assessed him as "medium risk, serious harm." He moved to supported accommodation and then, in April 2009, to a private flat on Charnwood Street in Derby city center.
In May 2010 his landlord, Artell Black, asked him to leave. Black later told police that Dawson had fallen behind on his rent and was aggravating other residents. On June 6, 2010, a fire broke out in a flat opposite Dawson's. An argument followed, and Dawson pushed Black in the chest. He was arrested on suspicion of assault and arson. The arson allegation was later dropped for lack of evidence. He was charged with assault and bailed on condition that he not contact the landlord, with a court date set for July 29, 2010. In a statement to police in 2010, Black described Dawson as "a risk to the community."
The Probation Service considered sending Dawson back to prison. It decided against a fourth recall, the inquest heard, because police described the assault as minor and bail conditions kept him away from the landlord. A serious case review later called that decision "borderline."
Action Housing agreed to accommodate him, and on June 14, 2010, he moved into a flat on Waterford Drive in Chaddesden. Because probation had reduced his assessed risk, he was supervised less often. The coroner later found that what agencies knew about his first murder had not been fully passed on to Action Housing, Derby City Council or Derby Homes, though he concluded the tenancy would probably still have been offered. Dawson's last contact with duty workers before the killings was on July 22. They raised no concerns about his appearance or the state of his flat, but noted that he was "apprehensive" about his coming court appearance. Neither Matthews nor Hancock ever reported any concern about him to any agency.
John David Matthews was 66 and known as Dave. He came originally from Belper, in Derbyshire, and worked as a kitchen porter at Darleys, a restaurant at Darley Abbey Mills in Derby. He was last seen at work on July 9, 2010. When he did not come in, his colleagues became concerned. The sources opened say little more about his life or family, though relatives of both men attended the inquest in 2022.
Paul Hancock was 58 and from Derby. At the inquest his niece read a statement from the family. They described him as intelligent and "a gentle soul," who loved art and played the guitar. He had cared for his mother for several years, had worked with disabled children and had once rescued an elderly neighbor from a fire. "He had a tenderness even though he never had the chance to become a father," his niece said. "You never wanted to go up against him at Trivial Pursuit, as you always lost. He just appreciated the small things." The family's statement ended: "We miss you so much, our family will never be the same again."
Dawson had lived on Waterford Drive for only a few weeks. The court heard in 2011 that he went to each man's flat on the pretence of wanting to use the washing machine.
Matthews was killed first. The inquest heard that he could have died as early as July 10, the day after he was last seen at work, and that he may have lain dead for up to a week. Dawson stabbed him repeatedly. BBC News reported from the 2011 hearing that Matthews had been stabbed 18 times; the post-mortem findings read at the 2022 inquest described around ten wounds, from two knives. Dawson moved the body into the bath.
Hancock was killed in his own flat in the same block. He suffered at least 22 stab wounds to his hands, neck and chest, including defensive wounds to his hands, and died from blood loss. He too was placed in his bath. According to the Derby Telegraph, Dawson used water and bubble bath to hide the smell of both bodies. A rose was left on Hancock's pillow.
Alan Cliff, another resident of the block, later told BBC News that Dawson came to his flat just after killing one of the men. "He grabbed me round the shoulders, then his arm came up underneath my neck and I felt it on my throat, he had me in a nelson," Cliff said. "I pulled him off me and said 'get out of my flat, mate'." After the sentencing he wrote to Dawson in prison to ask whether he had meant to make him a third victim.
Matthews's body was found on July 25. Police then looked for Dawson, who had gone. According to the Liverpool Echo, he spent five days on the run. He traveled to Whitehaven, on the Cumbrian coast, where Derrick Bird had shot dead twelve people and injured twenty-five weeks earlier. Malcolm Dawson believed his brother chose the town on purpose. "He wanted police to shoot him so he went out in a blaze of glory," he said.
At about 6 a.m. on July 30, 2010, police arrested a 47-year-old Derby man in Whitehaven on suspicion of murder. He tried to get away by jumping into the sea, was shot twice with a Taser and was overpowered. The Echo reported that he taunted officers to shoot him. He was carrying seven kitchen knives and a survival kit, and officers feared he meant to kill again.
The same day, Paul Hancock was found dead in another flat in the Waterford Drive block. Assistant Chief Constable Steve Cotterill of Derbyshire Constabulary asked anyone who had heard or seen anything unusual in the area in the previous week to come forward. On August 2, police said both men had died of knife wounds, that the deaths were linked and were being treated as murder, and that the arrested man had been questioned and remained in custody. They appealed for information about Matthews's last movements.
In Dawson's flat, officers found a notebook bearing the impression of a letter, said to have been written by Dawson, that confessed to one of the killings. It was signed "Yours, the Angel of Mercy." In interview, the court later heard, Dawson told police he had an urge to kill.
In late September 2010 a 48-year-old man of no fixed address appeared before Derby magistrates charged with both murders and was remanded in custody to appear at Nottingham Crown Court. He was named as Andrew Dawson.
Dawson admitted killing both men but pleaded not guilty to murder, on the ground of diminished responsibility. A trial was set at Nottingham Crown Court.
On July 18, 2011, the first day of the trial, Dawson changed his pleas and admitted both murders. No jury verdict was needed, and the psychiatric case for diminished responsibility was never tested before a jury.
Mrs Justice Dobbs sentenced him the same day to life imprisonment with a whole life order. "Life will mean life," she told him. "These were pre-meditated and planned, brutal killings. Each had the misfortune of being your neighbour who had no chance."
Detective Inspector Paul Callum of Derbyshire Constabulary said Dawson had shown no remorse and had "simply sought to blame anyone he can for the direction his life has taken." "These were cold, calculated and savage acts," he said. "He has shown a degree of thought and planning and sought to conceal and destroy evidence where he could. He has stretched out this process unnecessarily for the families of those men that died for no reason."
Derbyshire Probation defended its handling of him. "We always knew he was a difficult man," said Denise White of the service, "but there was nothing in all the years to indicate the things that we heard in court today that in fact he was planning to kill again."
Malcolm Dawson, 51, who still lived in Ormskirk, said after the sentencing that his brother should be locked up "like Hannibal Lecter" so he could never kill again. He wrote to the governor of Nottingham Prison to urge that his brother be kept securely. "I think he will take himself out or he will try to 'do' one of the other inmates," he told the Echo. BBC News reported that Dawson began his sentence at Wakefield prison.
The inquest into the two deaths did not open until December 9, 2022, more than twelve years after the deaths. At Chesterfield Coroner's Court, Derbyshire area coroner Peter Nieto apologized to both families for the delay, calling it "completely unacceptable," and said he would examine how Dawson had been supervised and managed and how the risks he posed had been assessed. The inquest heard from the Probation Service, Action Housing, Derbyshire police, Derby Homes and Derby City Council.
On December 15, 2022, Nieto recorded conclusions of unlawful killing for both men and said responsibility "lies squarely with Andrew Dawson." He found that individual professionals had made mistakes in recording, reviewing and sharing information, and that the process of finding Dawson a tenancy had been rushed and not fully followed. But he found that these failings did not contribute to the deaths. "The court does not find that these issues have contributed to Mr Matthews' [or Mr Hancock's] death, because on the evidence before the court, these issues did not affect the decisions, which were reasonable, although finely balanced, professional decisions made at the time," he said. On the decision not to recall Dawson after the June 2010 assault, he said there was "no extra basis for me to find Andrew Dawson should have been recalled to prison," though evidence had been given that recall should have occurred. He found there were "no materially deficient processes or systems" in the agencies involved. He ended by offering his condolences to both families, whose relatives were in court.
Dawson is serving a whole life order imposed on July 18, 2011, for the murders of John Matthews and Paul Hancock. BBC News confirmed in December 2022 that he would not be eligible for parole. No report of an appeal against the sentence, a transfer, his death or any other change was found. If alive, he would be about 64 in October 2026. His current prison is not given in recent sources; he began his sentence at Wakefield.
The Derby Telegraph has described Dawson as Derby's only convicted serial killer. The case raised the question that comes up whenever a life-sentence prisoner kills again on license: whether the people supervising him could have seen it coming. In 2011 probation officials said there had been no sign he planned to kill again. Eleven years later the coroner agreed that the decisions taken, including the decision not to recall him in June 2010, had been reasonable though finely balanced, while finding errors in how information about his first murder was recorded and passed on. The serious case review's description of the recall decision as "borderline" stands beside that conclusion.
For the families, the inquest came more than a decade after the deaths, and the coroner said publicly that such a delay should not have happened. Paul Hancock's family used it to describe the man they had lost. Little public tribute to Dave Matthews appears in the sources opened.
Motive: Dawson told police he had an urge to kill. He at first claimed diminished responsibility, then abandoned that defense by pleading guilty, so no court decided his mental state. No motive beyond the urge he described is established.
Whether he meant to kill again: officers feared he intended to kill more people and go out in a "blaze of glory," and his brother said the same. This is their belief, based on the knives and his conduct at arrest. He was not charged with any further plan or attack.
Alan Cliff's account that Dawson grabbed him by the neck is his own account to the BBC. It was not the subject of a charge.
The "Angel of Mercy" letter survived only as an impression in a notebook and was "said to have been written" by Dawson; the BBC report does not say which killing it confessed to.
Numbers and dates differ between sources: Matthews's wounds (18 in the 2011 court reporting, about 10 in the inquest's post-mortem summary); Dawson's release on license (1999 or 2000); the years of his recalls (2003, 2005 and 2007 in the coroner's summary; 2003, 2004 and 2007 in the BBC); whether Henry Walsh died in his shop or his flat. One sentence of the Echo's 2011 article calls the 1981 victim "Mr Smith," apparently in error, since the same article names him as Henry Walsh.
1962: Andrew Dawson born in Ormskirk, Lancashire.
1981: Murders Henry Walsh, 91, in Ormskirk.
1982: Pleads guilty to murder; life sentence.
1999 (or 2000): Released on life license from HMP Sudbury.
October 2003: Recalled to prison over alcohol; released April 2004.
February 2005: Recalled for possessing a knife; released July 2007.
October 2007: Recalled again; released September 2008 to a probation hostel in Derby.
April 2009: Moves to a private flat on Charnwood Street, Derby.
May 2010: Landlord asks him to leave.
June 6, 2010: Pushes his landlord after a fire; arrested on suspicion of assault and arson; charged with assault and bailed.
June 14, 2010: Moves into a flat on Waterford Drive, Chaddesden.
July 9, 2010: Dave Matthews last seen at work.
About July 10, 2010: Matthews killed, according to the inquest.
July 22, 2010: Dawson's last contact with duty workers.
July 25, 2010: Matthews found dead in his flat.
July 29, 2010: Dawson's court date for the assault charge.
July 30, 2010: Dawson arrested in Whitehaven; Paul Hancock found dead in the same block.
August 2, 2010: Police link the two deaths.
September 2010: Dawson charged with both murders.
July 18, 2011: Pleads guilty at Nottingham Crown Court; whole life order.
December 9 to 15, 2022: Inquest at Chesterfield; unlawful killing; agency failings found not to have contributed to the deaths.
October 2026: Serving a whole life order.