It was on 14 June 2012 that the ex-wife of 57 year old Richard Sherratt became concerned as she could not contact him. This was most out of character for Richard. Increasingly worried, she went to his new apartment to check on him. Richard was a property developer and in recent weeks he had been working on a project to build two cottages and he had been living on site in a rented apartment. When she let herself in she could instantly see that something was wrong and she found Richard’s semi-naked body lying on his blood stained bed – it was clear that he had been murdered.
As the police and other services arrived at the scene it was clear that Richard had suffered a terrible death with his body showing 38 injuries including five blows to the head, a stab wound to his arm and puncture marks on his face and neck. Money and cards had been stolen and there were pinprick injuries to his arm and neck – this appeared to suggest that Richard may have been tortured by however had killed him, potentially in an attempt to make him reveal the PIN numbers for his bank cards which had been taken. A pathologist would later conclude that Richard had died within an hour of being attacked and that the cause of death was a lack of oxygen due to blood blocking his airways.
Richard was well known in the community and clearly very well regarded with a number of tributes made by shocked friends. One senior partner at a major estate agents, who knew Richard for around 20 years, said: “He was a very honourable businessman – very trustworthy and a pleasure to deal with.” A former girlfriend added: “He was a bright, thoughtful and funny man, who used to have me in stitches with some of the stories he told. He was also very caring, particularly of his family, and we remained good friends even after we stopped going out as a couple.”
Detectives immediately began to look into the life of Richard Sherratt, talking to as many people who knew him as possible. Just what could the motive have been to attack Richard in this way – was it someone he knew or a random attack. As so often, the information pointing towards whoever murdered Richard was found in his background.
Richard had enjoyed a very happy childhood in nearby Kinver and attended King Edward VI Grammar School in Stourbridge. As a teenager he had a lot of things going for him – he was academically bright, handsome, charming and financially his family were well off.
Richard wanted to work for himself and started off in the gold jewellery business before moving into property development. He was very successful in the line of work with his attention to detail, strong planning and skills and crucially, his ability to build relationships. He built a successful business in Hyperion Homes which he ran with friend Steve Taylor. And at the time of his death, as I said, he was developing two homes. As detectives talked to business associates, there didn’t seem to be any record of Richard behaving in anything but an exemplary way as he built his business and peers, suppliers and competitors only had good things to say about him. A business dispute didn’t see to be the reason for Richard’s untimely death.
The police looked at his personal life and he had been married twice. Firstly to Denise and they had three children together, Tom, Joseph and Jennie. After divorcing he married his second wife, Tracey but they too were to divorce. But except the usual ups and downs of marriage and divorce there didn’t seem to be anything significant which had taken place. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma two years before his death, but this condition although serious, was not being treated as life-threatening. But after a number of relationships that hadn’t worked out for one reason or another, Richard was lonely and wanted someone to enjoy his life with. So he contacted an escort agency.
The sex worker who was sent out to see Richard was 26 year old Emma Bate. On their very first meeting in March 2012, they shared a glass of wine together and laughed and chatted as he showed her his holiday photographs before paying £180 for an hour of her time. Richard really enjoyed the hour with a much younger woman, and for Richard it wasn’t about sex but company, and in all the time they spent together over the coming weeks, they only attempted any sort of sexual contact on one occasion.
Emma was struggling with addiction – she had a seriosu heroin habit – and she had been addicted since the age of just 14, and because of it, you won’t be surprised to hear that she had lived a very chaotic life and was in many ways, way older than her 26 years, although for now, she had still retained her looks. And Richard found her very attractive and enjoyed her company and they began to see each other regularly.
Richard was very quickly infatuated by Emma and treated her incredibly well. He took her to expensive restaurants for dinner, bars for drinks, gave her very thoughtful presents. He pretty much replaced her wardrope, filling it with designed Armani gear and paid her extra money well above the rates he was obligated to pay by the agency. He made direct bank transfers to her account and even paid £7,740 to her boyfriend, 33 year old Paramjit Singh’s bank account for her.
Eventually, they saw each other nearly every day, and his friends all told how much he enjoyed being seen out with a much younger woman and indeed started to introduce her as his girlfriend. He even introduced her to his daughter Jennie, who was certainly not as taken by Emma Bate as her dad. She would later say, “ It was the way she looked, she was wearing tatty clothes, she didn’t appear well, her hair was scruffy. She spoke with an extremely broad accent – it came across as a shock. They seemed to get on well but my dad was an intelligent bloke. The way he came across was well. They didn’t seem to have much in common. But they seemed happy so I didn’t want to say anything.”
But she didn’t feel that is was her place to say anything about her dad’s choice of partner as, to use her words, they “seemed loved up”. He also planned to take her on holiday to Dubai to relax in the sun and do some shopping, but Emma was unable to go as she had no passport.
As for Emma, she was incredibly happy with the situation. She told friends that she couldn’t believe her fortune in having found a sugar daddy who, as she put it, treated her ‘like a princess’. And more than this, he gave her everything she asked for.
But with the money she was given from Richard, Emma started to take other drugs and very soon had developed a serious crack cocaine habit. Desperate for even more cash than the incredible generous Richard already gave her, she began stealing from him. The end of the relationship came in May when Richard realised that despite all he had give Emma, she had stolen £800 from his bank account. He confronted Bate about it and she didn’t try to deny what she had done, admitting that she had taken the money. But Richard now saw another side to Emma as she then tried to blackmail Richard for £2,000 by turning up at his house with a black eye and threatening to ruin his reputation by going to the police and telling them that he had done this too her. Fond as he was of Emma, Richard could see that this situation was spiralling out of control and he knew he had to end their relationship. On 14 May he changed his PIN number and headed off to Dubail alone. When he got back he didn’t contact Emma again and as far as he was concerned this was the end of it.
Of course, for Emma losing this revenue stream was just devastating, especially as she tried to pay for the drugs she needed. She still had Richard’s mobile number and by June she was bombarding him with texts, begging him for money. When he didn’t respond, Emma began planning what she should do next to get her hands on Richard’s cash – she knew he was well off and that he kept a lot of cash at his house. So along with her boyfriend, Singh – who too was addicted to serious drugs – she decided to rob him of cash and his bank cards.
They planned to travel late at night when they knew that Richard would be at home and would be asleep and Emma knew how to get into his flat as she still had a key which he had given her.
They picked late on 13 June to head to Richar’s house. And the couple were driven from their home in Birmingham to Bridgnorth by another of the men who regularly bought sex from her, 51 year old Michael Smith.
I always wonder about the small things, like what they spoke about during the journey there or if they listened to music? I wonder. They arrived in Bridgnorth around midnight and after parking, Smith stayed in the car while Bate and Singh went to Richard’s flat and broke in. Whilst we will never know for sure what happened in the flat, we can agree that Richard’s terror at seeing them there was very real. And the forensic expert who thought the pin pricks on Richard were he had been tortured for his PIN numbers was sadly correct.
The attack wasn’t a prolonged one, as just minutes later, Bate was already trying to withdraw cash using one of Richard’s bank cards, but the first attempt was unsuccessful. Michael Smith the other two occupants of the car were on their way back to Birmingham before 1am with some of Richard clothes, a £10,000 watch, some bank cards and some cash.
By 1am all three defendants were almost back Birmingham with Mr Sherratt’s bank cards, some cash and a £10,000 watch.
Detectives picked them up on cctv as they used the bank cards. And on one piece of particularly unpleasant CCTV footage you can see Bate less than an hour after killing Richard withdrawing money from a cashpoint using one of Richard’s cards. Following this, as she walked back to the car she raised her hands as if she had just scored a goal. Her elation is very clear. Half an hour after this revolting scene, Bate an Singh were caught on cctv again, this time passionately kissing in a lift at Bate’s flat in the Aston district of Birmingham. In her hand is a carried bag full of Richard’s stolen stuff. Later that day, she went shopping with another of Richard’s bank cards.
When both were arrested, as we hear so often on this podcast, both turned on each other. She said she had not been involved in the murder, her only intention was to steal from Richard. She said that it was Singh and only Singh who had killed Richard.
At the trial, which took place at Stafford crown Court,Bate denied murder but admitted robbing and defrauding property developer Richard Sherratt. Singh admitted murder, robbery and fraud.
Emma Bate told the jury how she had planned to pay off a dealer she used for her crack-cocaine and heroin addiction as he was pressing her for money. She told how she asked her boyfriend Singh, also a heavy crack-cocaine user, for help. But only for robbery.
David Mason QC, for Bate, said drugs and prostitution had been her “daily life” since the age of 14 and he told the jury that there was no intent to murder Richard and that the crime was a “robbery that went wrong, badly wrong”. Singh’s QC told the judge her client “was besotted by Bate at the time of the robbery and he is besotted by her now”.
Singh told the court how he and Bate never intended to kill Richard – only to rob him. He admitted that he had been in possession of knives when he went into Richard’s flat, adding that Bate ended up stabbing Richard in the arm and putting a cushion over his face and when he removed the pillow Richard’s face was purple.
The prosecutor said: “The plan originated from Bate, Singh agreed to it. Plainly they must have thought about it before going over.
“The fact that a cushion was put over his face could only have been for one reason and they must have known Mr Sherratt would be able to identify those who had entered his house.”
At the conclusion of the evidence in the three week trial, the jury left court to consider their verdict and took more than a day to consider the case before finding Bate and Singh both guilty of Richard’s murder. The driver, Michael Smith, denied robbery and was found not guilty.
The judge told the killers: “It is not possible, nor is it necessary to say precisely what part each of you played in inflicting the injuries which caused Mr Sherratt’s death, but that you were both involved in the use of violence beyond any doubts. Not only is Richard Sherratt lost to his three children, but to his mother, brother, nephew and many friends. His immediate family feel a huge void in their lives, no longer having him to turn to. For them there was no time to say goodbye: just the shock that he was dead, something which, through sleepless nights and anxious days, they are still suffering.”
For sentence, the judge told Bate he was “bound” to sentence her and Singh, to life imprisonment. Bate was ordered to spend at least 25 years behind bars and Singh was told he must serve a minimum of 18 years in prison. The judge continued that the pair they must also serve ten years each, concurrently, for robbery.
As the verdict was read out yesterday, Bate initially held her head in her hands whilst Singh showed no emotion. But again, we had yet another example of a lack of respect towards families when Bate then smirked at Richard’s daughter Jennie, being led back to her cell.
After the hearing, Richard’s son Joseph, said: “We feel justice has been served. However, no sentence will bring our dad back, and take away the loss we feel. Our dad was a kind, generous and loving man, who has cruelly been taken from us. He is greatly missed by family and friends.” His sister Jennie spoke specifically about Emma Bate saying: “She showed no remorse.She doesn’t feel remorseful for anything she has done.”
After the case, Det Insp Steve Tonks, of West Mercia Police, said: “The court heard distressing details about the degree of violence used while Mr Sherratt was held captive and tortured in his own home last June.”He was subjected to a callous and brutal ordeal.”
So what do you make of what you have heard today.
Do you have any sympathy for Emma I wonder? Many of you won’t, but then again many of us won’t have experience addiction to crack cocaine and heroin and how that ends. Look, this isn’t a podcast about addiction but I think we have all read, watched and listened to enough about serous addcition to know that it leads previously wonderful people to do things their family and friends would never have thought possible. But should that mean we have sympathy for Emma, I’m not sure. And the way Emma reacted after the murder was just sickening – can we really blame all the behaviours on the drugs?
And let’s be absolutely clear that it was an utterly horrendous thing she did to Richard who had shown her only kindness and generosity. And for her and Singh to enter the flat with knives, they must have been prepared to use violence. But did they intend to kill Richard or was it a robbery went wrong as they claimed. I guess we will never know for sure.
But in a way it almost doesn’t matter now, as they are both in their prison cells as you listen to this having thrown away their youth and in reality their lives, with both being around 60 if they are ever released. But enough of them, our thoughts are with the family and friends of Richard. A man who was lonely, looking for company and offered Emma nothing but kindness. And a man who touched so many people – there were over 500 people at his funeral. And yet he was taken away from his loved ones at just 57 when he had so much to live for. And of course his final moments must have been utterly terrifying. Poor Richard, a man who achieved so much and gave so much, to lose his life like this. This wasn’t how it was meant to end for him. It’s just not fair, is it.
This story was featured as Episode 435 of the UK True Crime Podcast. The sources used were: https://www.expressandstar.com/news/2013/02/01/justice-is-done-say-children-of-victim-richard-sherratt/https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/crime/2013/02/01/evil-pair-driven-to-murder-of-bridgnorth-businessman-richard-sherratt-by-greed/https://cdn-www.expressandstar.mna.arcpublishing.com/news/crime/2012/11/14/man-32-admits-murder-of-businessman/https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/kissing-killers-tortured-murdered-businessman-1712777https://ynaija.com/pure-evil-couple-filmed-celebrating-the-murder-of-man-they-just-stole-from-with-a-passionate-kiss-screenshot/https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2013/01/17/daughter-tells-of-shock-over-murder-accused/https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/crime/2013/03/01/couple-given-life-for-murder-of-bridgnorth-businessman-richard-sherratt/