Times Online

July 14, 2007

A teenager who appeared on the junior version of Stars in Their Eyes has been found bludgeoned to death with her mother and younger brother.

Police discovered the bodies of Beverley Samuels, 35, a nurse, her daughter Kesha Wizzart, 18, and son Fred, 13, at their home in a cul-de-sac in Fallowfield, Manchester, on Thursday evening. They all had head injuries.

Police last night named a 32-year-old suspect whom they are hunting in connection with what they labelled the “horrific murders”. Pierre Williams, who neighbours said was the mother’s boyfriend, was described as about 5ft 8in (1.72m) and of medium build. Mr Williams, who grew up in Moss Side, Manchester, but lived in Birmingham more recently, has a tattoo on his right arm which says “cream” and more tattoos on his chest.

Superintendent Peter Savill said: “Pierre was a friend of the mother. He was a friend she had not seen until quite recently.”

Kesha, who was hoping to study law at the University of Manchester, recently completed her A levels at Parrs Wood Sixth-Form College in Didsbury. She appeared on the junior version of ITV’s Stars in Their Eyes in 2004, when she was 15, impersonating the American R&B singer Toni Braxton with the song Unbreak My Heart.

Neighbours spoke of heart-rending scenes as members of the family, including Ms Samuels’s former husband, Fred Wizzart, 38, a sales manager, arrived to be informed of the deaths. Jamie Smyth, 21, a neighbour, said: “I saw Fred. He was pacing the square with his head in his hands. He looked devastated.”

The parents separated early in the children’s lives but, say friends, Mr Wizzart had been a loving father who paid close attention to their welfare.

Ms Samuels worked at Manchester Royal Infirmary. Her son, who was said to have had learning difficulties, attended St John Vianney School in Salford. He was well known in the neighbourhood for riding his bicycle with other children and offering a free bicycle repair service in his garden.

Kesha took ten GCSEs at Trinity Church of England High School, Hulme. She recently completed her A levels, leaving her free, as she put it on her entry on Facebook, the social networking website, to put her days as a “recluse” behind her.

Manchester Royal Infirmary said in a statement that Ms Samuels was “a very popular member of the team” who would be sadly missed.

Greater Manchester Police said that the murders were not thought to be gang-related. They sought to reassure the community that they were not looking for a random killer. Mr Savill said: “We have got strong lines of inquiry which multiple officers have been drawn into to investigate. I can reassure the public that this does not represent a general threat to the wider community.

“We are absolutely determined to find the person responsible for these despicable murders.”

Police refused to comment on a report that there had been an argument outside the house. They would not comment on suggestions that the bodies were found in separate rooms or that they may have died at different times.

A man was arrested today on suspicion of the triple murders of a family in Manchester, police said.

Unemployed Pierre Williams, 32, was held in Birmingham after Kesha Wizzart, 18, her mother Beverley Samuels, 36, and brother Fred, 13, were found dead in their own home in Fallowfield on Thursday evening.

Detectives said last night they were urgently hunting Williams, a former friend of Mrs Samuels.

The couple had been friends but had not seen each other for some time.

A Greater Manchester Police spokeswoman said Williams called police in the early hours of this morning and local officers went to his home, where he was arrested.

Detectives from Greater Manchester Police were today going to Birmingham to question him.

The bodies were found by a member of the public at the family's terraced home on Thelwall Avenue at about 7pm on Thursday.

Kesha, who appeared on Young Stars in Their Eyes in 2004 aged 15, was found dead with serious head injuries, with her mother, who worked as a nurse at Manchester Royal Infirmary.

Her teenage brother, who suffered from learning difficulties, was also found dead close by.

A GMP spokeswoman said: "A 32-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the bodies of two women and a boy were found at a house on Thelwall Avenue in Fallowfield on Thursday, July 12.

"GMP was made aware of this arrest at 5am this morning.

"Officers from GMP's Major Incident Team are en route to the city to question the man and he remains in police custody.

Kesha is believed to have finished her A-Levels at Parrs Wood High School in Didsbury only a few weeks ago.

The teenager dreamed of a singing career after performing a Toni Braxton song on the ITV talent show and was tipped for stardom by a local music producer.

She had planned to study law at the University of Manchester and told friends she wanted to become a barrister but always held on to the hope of one day finding fame through her singing.

Mrs Samuels had split from her long-term partner and father of the children, IT worker Fred Wizzart.

Mr Wizzart returned to his children's home on Thursday night after the bodies were found and was consoled by neighbours.

He was heard screaming: "Why my children?" in the street.

Williams grew up in the Moss Side district of Manchester although had more recently lived in Birmingham.

Superintendent Paul Savill refused to answer questions on where the three bodies were found in the house or how they were killed.

He also would not comment on a possible motive for the attacks.

He said: "These murders are horrific and as I am sure you can appreciate, the family and friends of the victims are devastated.

"We are absolutely determined to find the person responsible for these despicable murders and will not rest until they are brought to justice."

Kesha also had a CD produced of her music after she beat off hundreds of music hopefuls to win a competition by local radio station Carnival FM, in Manchester.

Times Online

February 22, 2008

A talented student who sang on the junior version of Stars in Their Eyes was bludgeoned to death along with her mother and younger brother, Manchester Crown Court was told yesterday.

Kesha Wizzart, 18, was a hard-working young woman who had just completed her A levels and was looking forward to reading law at university.

In the early hours of July 12 last year, the jury was told, Pierre Williams, 33, her mother’s former lover, tied the teenager’s hands behind her back and sexually assaulted her. Kneeling on her back he delivered fatal blows with a hammer or similar blunt instrument with such ferocity that it severed her ear.

Kesha’s mother, Beverley Samuels, 36, a nurse who worked at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, was violently raped before her skull was crushed with repeated blows from an engineer’s hammer. The body of Fred, her 13-year-old son, was found next to her, covered with a duvet.

Ray Wigglesworth, QC, opening for the prosecution, told the jury: “This was not, however, a frenzied attack by a man using wild and indiscriminate blows. The person who murdered the three deceased did so by delivering accurate and deliberate blows to the head of each victim. The prosecution say that these were execution-style murders.”

Mr Williams, 33, from Birmingham,-denies murder.

Mr Wigglesworth told the jury that Ms Samuels had an intermittent relationship with Mr Williams during 2005 after the break-up of her marriage. Mr Williams, who lived in the Midlands, was in the habit of turning up unexpectedly at the semidetached home of Ms Samuels in Fallowfield, South Manchester. Friends were surprised to see him there last July.

Ms Samuels explained to Selena Brown, her niece, that he has stayed the night but that she had refused to have sex with him because she was menstruating. She said that the defendant had stormed off in a temper. The following day Kesha, who lived with her father, decided to stay overnight with her mother. She was dropped off at the house by a taxi in the early hours.

The prosecution says that Kesha, her mother and brother were murdered between 3.15am and 7.30am.

Mr Wigglesworth said: “Pierre Williams brutally murdered the family in their own home. The scientific evidence suggests that the murder weapon was an engineer’s hammer with a long wooden shaft, and each of the deceased died as a result of severe blows to the head with this weapon.”

It was Ms Brown who raised the alarm after she climbed a ladder and peered into the bedroom of Ms Samuels, where she saw the outline of her body and blood on the wall.

Mr Wigglesworth suggested that Mr Williams stole four mobile phones, selling one to a taxi driver who took him to Stockport railway station and three to a dealer in Birmingham for £60.

Mr Williams was arrested shortly after in Birmingham. When he was questioned by detectives in Manchester he answered: “No comment.”

Mr Wigglesworth said that expert witnesses will say that they cannot rule out the possibility that Ms Samuels was struck a single, disabling blow and that the murderer returned later to “finish her off”. She was struck at least seven times.

The jury watched a police video that showed the bodies as they were found in the heavily bloodstained bedrooms.

“Kesha Wizzart was murdered where she lay,” Mr Wigglesworth said. “She was naked, with her hands tied behind her back, and a pair of black pants had been placed on her head.”

Mr Wigglesworth told the jury that a trace of DNA bearing some of the components of Mr Williams’s DNA was found on a bra. A pair of shorts with semen from Mr Williams was retrieved from the washing basket. Forensic scientists matched bloody footprints from the distinctive Timberland shoes of Mr Williams to the crime scene. A hammer was retrieved from the bed of Ms Samuels.

Mr Wigglesworth outlined what he described as Mr Williams’s propensity for violence. He had been accused of raping the same woman on two occasions in 2003. On the first occasion he became sexually violent when she refused to have sex with him. He tied her hands behind her back, raped her and assaulted her with an object, telling her that she would never be able to have sex again. On the second occasion he forced his way into the home of the woman and attempted sexual intercourse but she was able to escape.

Mr Wigglesworth said: “Kesha Wizzart was a talented and hard-working young woman with the prospect of a bright future. In 2004 she came to the attention of the general public when she appeared on national television in the series Young Stars in Their Eyes.”

Ms Samuels will be described to the court by Fred Wizzart, her former husband, as a “very outgoing person . . . you would be hard pushed to find anyone who had a bad word to say about her”. Their son Fred was described as a typical 13-year-old, into music, clothes, friends and tinkering with bikes.

Scuffle in court as Pierre Williams gets life for murdering family of three

Times Online

March 7, 2008

A gym instructor scuffled violently with court guards yesterday as he was found guilty of bludgeoning to death a student who performed on the junior version of Stars in Their Eyes, her mother and younger brother.

Pierre Williams, 33, used a steelheaded hammer to kill his former lover, Beverley Samuels, a 36-year-old nurse, her daughter, Kesha Wizzart, 18, and son, Fred, 13.

Three security guards rushed to restrain Williams, who was bundled down to the cells at Manchester Crown Court after the verdict, loudly proclaiming his innocence. He was banned from the dock by the judge, when he sentenced him later to at least 38 years in prison.

Mr Justice Pitchford concluded that only Williams, who had a history of sexual violence towards women, could know what terror and pain he had inflicted upon his victims before they died.

In the early hours of July 12 last year, Williams, of Selly Oak, Birmingham, raped Ms Samuels in the bedroom of her home in Fallowfield, South Manchester, before repeatedly crushing her skull with the engineer’s hammer. Fred’s body was found next to the bed, covered in his duvet.

Miss Wizzart was a promising student who had just completed her A levels and was going to study law at Manchester Metropolitan University, to achieve her dream of becoming a barrister.

She had captured the imagination of the public in 2004 when she appeared on television singing the Toni Braxton song Unbreak My Heart on Young Stars in Their Eyes.

She did not live at her mother’s home but, by chance, she had visited a university in London that day, and had decided that it was easier to stay with her.

Investigators do not know in what order the family died but it is possible that Williams merely stunned Ms Samuels before attacking Miss Wizzart in the spare bedroom across the landing. He tied the naked teenager’s hands behind her back and sexually assaulted her. Kneeling on her back, he delivered the fatal blow with such ferocity that it severed her ear.

Ray Wigglesworth, QC, for the prosecution, told the jury that Williams had carried out “execution-style” murders after Ms Samuels had rejected his demands for sexual satisfaction.

Williams fled to Birmingham, where he sold several mobile phones belonging to his victims, but, in the face of a nationwide police appeal, gave himself up two days later. A container of cocoa butter at the crime scene became significant when a Bible was found in Williams’s possession: three pages were underlined in ballpoint pen and the words “special oil” high-lighted in three places. Detectives also found several other significant passages underlined, including: “Moses took some of the special oil and some of the blood which was on the altar and he sprinkled them on Aaron and Aaron’s clothes.”

During the trial, a former girlfriend of Williams described how he had bound and gagged her before raping her.

Williams was found guilty of three counts of murder after a ten-day trial. The judge said in his sentencing remarks: “Pierre Williams is a man with a low threshold for sexual frustration. Just as he had in the past with a previous girlfriend, he took out his frustration by treating Beverley and her daughter with gross sexual aggression.

In the course of giving evidence, Pierre Williams volunteered to the jury that the person who did this was an animal. The calm effrontery with which he volunteered that assessment demonstrates to me he harboured no remorse for what he had done and his purpose ever since has been to escape his just punishment if he could.”