Four people who paid to have a man murdered in West Chiltington have been jailed for a total of 45 years.
Emergency services were called to a property in Harbolets Road, West Chiltington, on Saturday 21 December 2019 to a report of a 48-year-old man having been stabbed in the chest and critically injured.
The victim, Richard Lidbetter, had been lured down the long drive of his rural home to open the gate to his on-off partner Emma Giles who said she wanted to meet.
When he stepped outside he was attacked by an unknown assailant and left for dead but was able to get back inside and call his neighbour who contacted the emergency services.
An investigation found that Mr Lidbetter – who was then in his forties – had been in a relationship with Emma Giles, now 24, for a few months that summer. The pair rekindled their romance in December 2019.
Emma Giles’s father, Mark Giles Snr, did not approve of the relationship and pressured the victim to end it through repeated threats of violence.
On Tuesday 17 December 2019, Emma Giles abruptly cut off contact with Mr Lidbetter but four days later agreed to meet him at his home where the attack took place.
The subsequent investigation found Emma Giles had conspired with her father, Mark Giles Snr, brother – Mark Giles Jnr – and then-boyfriend Sam Millis, to lure the victim to a vulnerable location where a man they had paid could murder him.
The assailant, who was identified by police and forensically linked to the attack, is now deceased.
The conspirators had paid him £3,000 to carry out the murder.
Phone and vehicle data showed all four defendants were in the area at the time of the attack and had been in constant communication with eachother before, during and after. All four defendants’ phones stopped being used promptly after the attack.
Messages on the attacker’s phone in the aftermath showed he was discussing the police investigation, destroying evidence and frantically trying to contact Millis.
All four defendants were arrested and subsequently charged with conspiracy to murder.
They pleaded not guilty but were convicted by a jury at Lewes Crown Court after a four-week trial that ended on Thursday 5 October 2023.
At the same court on Friday 23 February, Mark Giles Snr, 59, of Linfold Road, in Billingshurst, was jailed for 10 years.
Mark Giles Jnr, 37, of Adversane Lane, in Billingshurst, was jailed for 14 years.
Sam Millis, 46, of Kingston Ridge, in Lewes, was jailed for 14 years.
Emma Giles, 24, of Linfold Road, was jailed for seven years.
Judge Christine Laing said: “The extraordinary nature of this case, and the lack of motive, does suggest you are all very dangerous people
“The reason why you did so is unclear but it does seem to revolve around the relationship between Mr Lidbetter and you, Emma Giles. It is inconceivable such a motive would lead to murder but that is the outcome you all wanted.
“It was a particularly poignant aspect of this case that among Mr Lidbetter’s first queries at the hospital was to ask had you (Emma Giles) turned up to see him as he hoped would have happened.
“His survival was miraculous and the long term effects show how serious this incident was and how it will have a long lasting impact.”
In a statement submitted to the court, the victim said: “The mental impact of this has left me in such a bad way that I don’t think I will ever fully recover.
“I don’t sleep and when I do I have dreams about what happened. The whole incident and especially the worry to do with having to give evidence at court and relive what happened again and again has led to me having to take medication for anxiety.
“The offence committed against me has significantly impacted on my day-to-day life. I used to have an active social life in the local area but now I stay away in case I see anyone that was involved in doing this to me. I can no longer do the things I considered normal.
“I just can’t understand why people arranged for this to happen to me. We used to be friends and I loved one of the people involved. All I keep thinking is all of this could have been sorted out in other ways.”
Detective Sergeant Simon Smith said: “This was an extremely complex investigation into the betrayal of a man by the woman he loved, whose family would clearly stop at nothing to end their relationship.
“The victim in this case is extremely fortunate to have escaped with his life.
“Proving an offence such as this is challenging but, thanks to the tireless work of the investigation team, we were able to gather enough evidence to tie all four to the crime and secure these significant custodial sentences.
“Had the man they paid to carry out the attack been alive, I am confident he too would have faced justice for his crimes.”
