Richard Helm: How video put police in picture about murder weapon
A lucky break helped to put detectives in the picture about the weapon used to murder Richard Helm and the man who wielded it.
Police revealed a man had spent the night drinking with Danny Cooper, Ashley Wilson and Matty Stinson and took a short video of them having fun in the kitchen of the latter's home.
On the evening of October 11 he travelled from Stoke to see his friend Stinson who had been released early from a three-year jail sentence a month earlier.
The pair arranged to meet for a drink at the Malthouse in New Road, Willenhall, and the man arrived to find his pal was with 27-year-old Ashley Wilson, who he also knew.
After half an hour they returned to Stinson's house in Raven Crescent, Ashmore Park, so they could all travel in the same car to The Bellwether in Walsall Street, Wednesbury, where Wilson had planned to meet 32-year-old father-of-three Cooper, who the others barely knew.
Stinson was on a night-time curfew as a result of his early release and so the foursome went back to his home before the 9pm deadline where they carried on drinking through the night.
The man took the tell-tale video in the kitchen at around 9.30pm but had left to get more alcohol when Richard Helm was stabbed to death on the driveway of the house shortly after 5.15am on October 12.
Fled to Stoke
He returned to find the area sealed off by police and fire crews with a car on fire outside Stinson's address so he headed back to Stoke but was soon traced by detectives who seized his mobile phone.
Analysis of the data unearthed the short video and careful viewing of the footage revealed three knives in a knife block on the kitchen window ledge.
These matched knives found in and around the driveway after the murder. Officers now knew they came from the kitchen and had been in place just hours before the fatal stabbing.
Two of the knives were quickly discovered but the murder weapon was not spotted until much later in the day.
It was lying on the drive but had either been accidentally hidden by a flap of the tent erected to cover the body until it was removed, or had fallen from a hiding place in the hedge where it had been thrown during the panic that followed the stabbing.
A detective involved in the case said: "Recovery of the murder weapon is always a significant development in this type of inquiry but on this occasion we also knew where it came from and when it was there."
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The knife had Cooper's DNA on the handle and Richard Helm's blood on the blade, while the block where it was stored had the fingerprints of the defendant in precisely the position where his right hand would have been put to take the knife - the largest of the three - for protection before leaving the house to confront the victim and his brother Anthony who had just arrived outside.
The find confirmed the lie of Cooper's claim that he had left the building when he picked up the knife, which he said the deceased had dropped.
According to Cooper, Mr Helm "ran onto" the blade when he died.
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Moment after the stabbing callous Cooper left Richard to die and fled without even ringing for an ambulance.
He was arrested at a Chelmsley Wood flat nine days later and this week convicted of murder.
Yesterday Cooper was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum 24-year term while Wilson, who was found guilty of manslaughter, was sentenced to eight years behind bars.
