25 years for crazed thug who battered organist to death

Serial offender Jonathan Bowling, 22, had been out of prison for just eight weeks when he smashed a ­pick-axe handle into the back of 68-year-old Alan Greaves’s skull. Handing down a life

sentence, judge Mr Justice Teare told him: “Why you wished to inflict violence on another human being on Christmas Eve is known only to you.” Bowling had admitted murder. His step-brother

Ashley ­Foster, also 22, was jailed for nine years after being convicted of manslaughter. Grandfather Mr Greaves was walking to perform Midnight Mass at St Saviour’s Church in High Green,

Sheffield, on December 24 last year when the pair attacked him from behind. They had been drinking heavily and had gone “hunting for a victim”. They came across Mr Greaves after the retired

social worker had returned home to fetch his hat because of the cold. The three-minute detour had put him directly into the killers’ path. Bowling had served a number of custodial sentences

since his early teens. He had been released from a 16-month jail term for aggravated vehicle taking on October 12 last year – just two months before he murdered Mr Greaves. Jailing the pair

at Sheffield Crown Court, Judge Teare said: “You chose your victim at random. Alan Greaves happened to be in front of you, on his way to serve the community, as he had always done, and you

decided to inflict violence on him. “Neither of you knew Alan Greaves. He had done nothing to provoke the attack on him. He was merely walking to church to help his local community celebrate

Christmas.” Mr Greaves’s appalling head injuries were said to be consistent with those of a car crash victim. The judge added: “His wife, his ­family and his community have suffered a

tragic and horrendous loss.” Mr Greaves’s widow Maureen, a devout Christian like her husband, has refused to condemn the killers but said she was “pleased” Bowling would serve a minimum of

25 years. She revealed he had handed her a letter on the day he faced sentence but she refused to read it. “If he was going to write me a letter he should have written it a long time ago,”

said Mrs Greaves. The devoted wife had sat with her critically injured husband in hospital for three days, knowing he was going to die.