A Deadly Neighbour Dispute: The Murder of Gary Dean | Ep. 245

Welcome to Always True Crime, a podcast network bringing you gripping real-life stories that you won't be able to stop thinking about. Discover your next true crime obsession at AlwaysTrueCrim.com. On a quiet morning in September 2018, a man sat off on his usual run through woodland near his home in a small South Yorkshire village and never came back. Just hours later, it was found in a ditch brutally attacked. His phone still ringing as his wife desperately tried to reach him. What unfolded wasn't a random act of violence. It was something far more calculated. Gary Dean was a familiar face in his local area. A keen runner, a man of routine, someone who stuck to the same path day in, day out. Before behind the scenes, tensions had been building for years. Complaints, confrontations and deeply troubling rumours had turned what should have been a simple neighbour dispute into something much darker. In this episode of British murders with Stuart Blues, we're heading to Silxton Common in Barnslay to explore the murder of Gary Dean. It's a case that shows just our far things can spiral when anger festers and lines are crossed. Because sometimes, the people we call neighbours can become the biggest threat of all. Before we begin, please take a moment to follow the show on your podcast platform of choice. It's a free and simple way to support British murders and helps the show reach a wider audience. Retains and reviews are always hugely appreciated and for ad free episodes, early access and a range of exclusive content, you can support the show at patreon.com/BritishMurders. Most of us at some point in our lives have had a bit of a running with a neighbour. I bet every single one of you listening could tell me a story about a nightmare neighbour. But in the grand scheme of things, the issue is usually something small and trivial. Excess noise through the wall or a dog that barks all day while it's human is at work. That second one is something I've experienced myself. It's a rower of a parking or a base of a who should pay for a bound defence. The kind of stuff that winds you up and maybe leads to a few choice words being exchanged, but then you just get on with your life. Perhaps the relationship sows to the point where you no longer want to speak to your neighbours and in extreme case, you or them may even move just to get away from the situation. But it very, very rarely goes any further than that. Because at the end of the day, it's just a disagreement and annoying one granted, but it's part of everyday life. Every now and then though, something shifts, a line gets crossed and frustration turns into something more personal and vindictive. It becomes intense to the highest degree. And before you know it, what star at as a simple neighbour dispute spirals into something far more serious? Gary Dean is the person who's story I'm telling in this episode. And he was 48 years older in our men timeline, which was in the early autumn of 2018. He was an only child, married and lived a fairly quiet life in Silxton Common. Is he the Silxton or Silxton? I'm going with Silxton, sorry if it's wrong. But regardless of how you pronounce it, it's a small village in Barnslay, South Yorkshire. It's a quintessential Yorkshire setting that known for its scenic countryside and historical mining heritage. Silxton Common offers visitors access to the Transpennine Trail, a popular route for walking and cycling. Think rows of terraced cottages, fields dotted around the perimeter of the village. And that sense that everyone knows each other or at least knows of each other. Gary lived in village with his wife Caroline, their home being one of the aforementioned terraced cottages located at Morend Houses. The couple were great together, appears to be. And for the most part it seems as though they just got on with life, all the while enjoying each other's company and looking ahead to their future together. Caroline worked as the head teacher at a huntingly primary school, so she had a big job on her hands, we a bucket load responsibility attached, while Gary on the other hand stayed at home. He didn't work, but his days were far from empty. He had routines, interests and he stuck to him religiously. Now it's important to talk about Gary properly here, because it matters for understanding what happened later and provides context as to why only Caroline went to work. Gary was on the autistic spectrum. That's not speculation on me taking an assumptive leap. It actually came up in the court during his killer sentencing. And like with a lot of people on the spectrum, it shaped how he experienced the world around him. I must stay for the record my knowledge of autism, it's not as great as I'm sure it is with many of you listening, but please know that I am doing my best to be respectful while using the correct terminology as best I can. As for Gary, it's on record in the judge's sentencing remarks that he could be difficult at times. I'm not intending to say that in a harsh way by the way, it's just the reality of the situation and a direct result of his autism. His condition meant that he sometimes struggled with things like emotional regulation, especially when it came to situations that he couldn't control, but that's only a part of the picture. Because alongside that, Gary was also known as a keen sportsman. He loved running to the point of it being an obsession and he was also very fond of cycling. But the running was his main thing and his weren't just casual jogs around the block either, trying to get himself from the couch to completing a 5K. He was part of a local running club, the penistone footpath runners, and if you're ever up early enough on a weekend, I'm sure you've seen such groups out and about. The dedicated to the active A turn in up come rain or shine. They quickly met the way up hills and through rugged terrain that most people, myself included, wouldn't dream of even walking through. And the people who ran with Gary had a lot of respect for him. They described him as a gentleman when they raced. He was quiet, focused, and kept himself to himself, but was always fair. He also had a very specific interest in diesel trains. And again, that fits with what we know about autism. Deep, focused interest that bring comfort and structure. I know a lot of this may sound stereotypical, and I'm not trying to paint everyone on the spectrum with the same brush. I know from speaking to people who listen to this show that everyone is different. Before for Gary, those were the things he had keen interest in. To tell you the truth though, it wasn't all sun shines in rainbows, as with most things, because the word challenges which required managing at given Gary's condition. He was extremely sensitive to noise. Loud, sudden sounds could really affect him, and there were times where his behaviour because of that came across as unusual or even an essential to people who didn't understand what was going on or had no knowledge of his condition. He'd sometimes confront people if he fell overwhelmed, but it was never done in a violent way. Still, it was sometimes enough that it could make people uncomfortable if they didn't know the full story. And that's the key thing to remember here. Once people understood why Gary behaved the way he did, most of them became a lot more patient with him, but it was those not in the know, and perhaps not even considering the possibility that Gary may be autistic, who ultimately led to his life ending the way it did. Gary wasn't an aggressive man by any stretch. That's probably the last adjective you'd use to describe the guy based on my research. He wasn't someone looking for trouble. If anything, he was the opposite. A bit eccentric, yes, a bit introverted, maybe misunderstood at times, but at the end of the day, harmless. In fact, if Gary ever did confront someone, it was usually in situations where he knew it could back away if needed. He required an escape route or a safety net as it were, because he'd struggle in certain moments to hold back his feelings. Even so, Gary was, by all accounts, a lovely guy who wouldn't arm a fly, so with that context set, let's now discuss where things start to go really wrong, and that is putting it lightly. We know he was an avid runner, but the odd 5 or 10k wasn't the limit for him. He lived and breathed that hobby. Yesterday, as you listen to this, was the 2026 London marathon, and that 26.2 mile race was one Gary had competed in a whopping 18 times according to one source. He's seriously impressive to run any marathon just once, so if that report in is accurate, then Gary would truly up there with the best of the best amateur long distance runners. Honours are capig into explaining how much graft and discipline it takes to run a marathon. So mind set that most people, including majors, do not have. [BLANK_AUDIO] Every morning without fail, Gary would head out on his run. Routine played a big part in his life, so each time he'd do the same run using the same paths. He'd go through the woodland near his home, often using an area called Bagger Wood. According to the Woodland Trust, it's 67.56 acres in size or 27.34 hectares if you that way inclined, and it's described as a rural heaven. There are even pine trees on the higher of the North-West facing slopes, so it's a picturesque place by the sounds of it, ideal for a morning run or dog walk. But is the problem with what Gary would do in? Parts of the trail he used run across land owned by his neighbours, and they didn't exactly appreciate people stepping even a foot onto their property. It's crucial to note that there was a public right away across that land, but like we do a lot of these paths if you step even slightly off the exact route even by accident, you technically on private land. That's where things start to boil over, and for whatever reason, Gary became the focus of the property owners anger. Plenty of people use those trails, and there's no way Gary was the only one who strayed from the path now and then, but it was seemingly only him and therefore his wife who was singled out. Whether that was because of his behaviour, his routines, or the fact he maybe didn't realise when he'd crossed a line, they might have done it more than most, we can't say for certain. What we do know though, is this wasn't a one off disagreement. It quickly escalated into years of harassment, and when I use that strong term harassment, I don't mean a few arguments over offence, chasing someone and shouting at them to get off your property. I mean a sustained, nasty campaign against Gary and Caroline. Their home was targeted, the car were vandalised, they were followed and threatened. At one point their house was even invaded, and Bizarre, the people at the centre of all this, were a mother and son duo called Carol and Scott Dawson. I do usually refer to the perpetrators in the cases I cover by their surnames only, but in this situation to avoid confusion I'll be calling them Scott and Carol going forward, or simply the Dawson's. They'd bought some land in Silxton Common after coming into some money. They didn't farm it themselves, but they did earn it, and they were very protective over it. Overly protective is perhaps a more accurate way of describing it. According to them, the issues with Gary started around 2014, and seemed to come out of nowhere because they didn't even know him. But instead of trying to sort things out like adults, or even just having a conversation with Gary, as we've covered once people got to know him, they understood his actions better, things escalated fast. One of the most disturbing parts of this old story is the rumours those two spread about the man they had such disdain for. At some point a letter was sent to Caroline's workplace, accusing Gary of being a pedophile, and he was luring children into the woods. I couldn't actually believe that when I read it, the Lord Debt's, some people are prepared to go to to get their own way. He's so often beyond comprehension, I mean imagine sending such a letter to a school. That's not just an insult or exchange of bad words, is it? That's the kind of accusation that can destroy lives, because people typically think that there's no smoke without fire. Others can be so hard to dispel once they've spread. A safeguarding investigation was launched on the back of that claim as it expect, I mean as I say it was sent to a school and accused the husband of the ed teacher of being a pedophile, but it found absolutely nothing. No evidence of any wrongdoing, no history of child abuse or anything along the lines of what was suggested. Gary had never done anything inappropriate with children, I want to make that clear. And yet the damage from something like that, it doesn't just disappear overnight. As the rumours spread, harsh consequences followed from people who took it at face value. We're going to take an ad break here when we return, we'll discuss the horrifying moment when Gary and Caroline's house was broken into while they were asleep inside. See you soon. Welcome back, let's now carry on with the story. In June 27, things took another terrifying turn when four youths forced their way into Gary and Caroline's home one evening. This smashed the way inside while Gary were asleep downstairs and three of them went straight for him. The fourth member of the group went upstairs and attacked Caroline, leaving her with a broken nose. During the attack, one of them shouted, "Where are you?" You're dirty bastard. I mean, that don't come out of nowhere, that language does it. It was pure hatred for a man they believed to be a child predator, an emotion which had been planted there by the couple's vindictive neighbours. It is widely believed those attacks were fueled by the rumours being spread about Gary. And as if all that wasn't enough, their house was also dobed with graffiti. Things like "Peter" and other offensive terms were spread across their home. Imagine waking up to that. Now Gary himself wasn't completely without quirks in all this. We've sort of covered it, but nothing justifies what we've just gone through. At one point he'd been building scarecrow's in the woods on land that wasn't is, which was strange behaviour without question. But Caroline were clear about that. She said he never meant any arm by it. Perhaps it was his way of getting back at the Dawson's? Only he knows for sure. But whatever the reason, it was just one of those things he fixated on. But to the Dawson's, they all added up. They made repeated complaints to the police via phone. Calls that were later played in court showed just our hostile and frankly malicious their attitude had become. They painted Gary as a constant nuisance, someone damaging their proper heir, someone who needed daylimber. Eventually Gary himself ended up in court. In 2017 he appeared at Barnsley Majestrade's after the Dawson's pursued illegal claim, but the case against him didn't stick. He was acquitted and rightly so. But a restraining order was put in place to stop any direct or indirect contact between him and the Dawson's. I find it odd that such a thing was granted, but it was. And for a short time after that, while the dust settled, things seemed to calm down. But underneath it all, the resentment held by the Dawson's was still there, slowly bubbling away. Scott in particular was known to have a foul temper. I don't mean he got a bit snapping just out a bit of a short fuse. I'm talking frequent, violent and explosive outbursts. It was a kind of guy who looked like it was just way in for an excuse to cause trouble. A molehill would be all it took for him to make a situation into a mountain. And despite the court case and the grant and a restraining order, the tension between the parties didn't go away. Gary kept running, kept sticking to his routines. And yes, at times that meant crossing the boundary briefly or going near their land. There were also reports of small fires being started near the area, supposedly by Gary. Now whether that was down to him, reports suggest it was. It's not clear why he did it. But again, based on what we know about Gary, there's no way he'd have meant anything by it. But to the Dawson's, it was the final straw. And by the summer of 2018, they'd had enough. They felt the authorities hadn't done anywhere near a sufficient job, but saw it in the situation out. So in their minds, they had no option but to take the law into their own hands. In early September 2018, they saw Gary as an ongoing problem, an irritant that wasn't going away. So they armed themselves, getting old of an air rifle which was kept at Carol's home, which she shared with the sun. But it didn't stop there. They started forming a plan which would soon end their problems with Gary once and for all. They worked out Caroline's schedule, scoping out the couple's home and making notes of her weekday routine. They knew when Caroline was out, when Gary would be alone, and they also knew about his religious morning runs. The Dawson's talked about using not just the rifle to exact their revenge on Gary, but other weapons too, including a metal pole. So based on all that preparation, the impending attack clearly wasn't a spur of the moment thing. It was deliberate and pre-meditated to the highest degree. One fuel by years of anger, bitterness and frustration at the perceived lack of interest from the authorities. Then on September 5, 2018, another fire was started in the woodland near a style close to the Dawson's land, and once more, his believed Gary was responsible. Why he did it, will never know. But in the minds of Caroline Scott Dawson, that was the final justification they needed to end Gary's life. We've now arrived at Thursday September 6, 2018. morning everything changed. Like any other day, Gary got up and stuck to his running routine. Caroline saw him that morning as she headed off to work and he was dressed exactly how he'd expect. Trainers on, beige cargo shorts, then ones with the big side pockets, and a bright red running top, a sort of half and half deal with red across the top and black on the bottom. Nothing out of the ordinary so far, but unbeknownst to Gary, this wasn't a normal morning. Because while he was setting off, someone else was already in position, Carol Dawson. She made sure she knew when Caroline had left the house. And Caroline herself recalled noticing something that would later become really important. A Volkswagen Tiguan parked up in a layer by on-house car lane. It didn't seem like much at the time, but that vehicle we know now belonged to Carol. She was inside acting as a lookout. With Caroline on her way to work and Gary heading off on his pre-breakfast run, Scott took the lead and put him and his mom's sick and twisted plan into motion. He armed himself with that air rifle I mentioned earlier, as well as a metal pole. And let's face it, you don't take those sort of things out, we are unless, you know, exactly what you're planning to do with them. Nothing good, certainly. Somewhere between 6.50 and 720 that morning, Gary crossed paths with Scott. And what followed was quite simply a brutal assault. Scott cowardly first shot Gary in the back, and after he fell, the attack continued. Scott used whatever he could get his hands on and used them as weapons. A rock was used as were fallen tree branches. He struck Gary over and over again, targeting his head and body. At some point Gary managed to get away from his attacker, briefly at least. He made it as far as a nearby culvert scrambling along it, badly injured and bleeding. No doubt absolutely terrified and unable to comprehend what was happening. He desperately tried to get away, crawling along the ground as he did, sir. The evidence later showed dirt on his hands and knees, suggesting it'd been on all fours, trying his utmost to survive. But he didn't get far enough. And instead of leaving him there, perhaps giving him the smallest chance of survival, Scott went after him. He followed him deeper into the wooded area and carried on the attack, finishing what he started. And just like that, Gary Dean was gone. Afterwards, instead of earning up to what they'd done, the Dawson's tried to cover it up. With Carol's help, Scott began getting rid of evidence, cleaning up what they could. They thought they could get away with it. There was even talk that they'd planned to come back later with a digger to move Gary's body so they could properly hide it. But they didn't get the chance, because not long after the attack, Gary were found. His body was lying near the Transpenneine trail close to Murrand Lane, where a dog walker happened upon his body in a ditch. His phone was actually ringing at the time, hence it caught the dog walker's attention. And heartbreakingly, on the other end, was a worried Caroline, desperately trying to get older, but her husband. Gary had severe injuries, many of which were to his head and various other wounds. An airgun pellet was still lodged in his spine, and the signs of what he'd been through were clear. A post-mortem letter confirmed he had died from injuries caused by a violent and significant assault. As the police began their investigation, they quickly formed a view that this wasn't a random attack committed by a stranger simply passing through and choosing a victim at random. They believed the person or person's responsible knew Gary, they just didn't know to what extent. They appealed to the local community for information, to anyone who may have seen him that morning, or anyone who knew anything at all that could help catch his killers. And before long, attention turned to the Dawson's, likely given the history between the parties and the location of where Gary were found. Scott then fought a was brought in on suspicion of murder. Carol, meanwhile, who was 76, was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. But even then, they didn't come clean and admit to killing Gary. They opted to lie repeatedly, trying to cover the tracks and build a story that would keep him out of prison. Lies such as those don't typically hold up for long though, and as the police started putting the pieces together, gathering evidence and checking timelines, they began to fall apart. Once they did, the truth of what happened that morning became impossible to hide, and the case eventually made its way to Sheffield Crown Court. The murder trial lasted five weeks in total and was presided over by his honour Judge Jeremy Richardson QC. Over that time, the full picture of what had happened to Gary started to come together. The jury were taken back years, shown the builder, the obsession, the anger, because this wasn't just about what happened on that September morning. The jury actually heard recordings of the 999 calls made by both Carol and Scott, and one of them, from June 2017, really stood out. Carol could be heard saying it was a nightmare. She spoke about the 27 acres of land they owned, claiming they couldn't move forward with their plans because of Gary. She accused him of threatening to set fire to their barn. Scott said their gates had been smashed, a style damaged, and even claimed that Gary had left feces on the path. Carol told police they were sitting in their car for hours, watching the land themselves, from six in the evening to one in the morning, such was their frustration, and in their thought their work being taken seriously. They also claimed Gary had cost them money. They recondited a feud with plans for land they'd invested heavily in, which led to a loss of around 300 grand apparently. But here's the thing. Despite all those accusations and everything they said, neither Carol nor Scott actually took the stand during the trial. They didn't give evidence in their own defence, meaning the jury had to weigh up what they had heard without hearing from the defendants. And in the end, they came to a clear decision. To them, both Carol and Scott were guilty of Gary's murder. When it came to sentencing, the court did hear arguments in mitigation, which can be read in the judge's remarks available to view online. For Scott, his barrister pointed out that he had no previous convictions, and tried to argue that the judge should keep a sense of proportion when looking at the cares as a whole. Carol's barrister pushed for a lower starting point, suggesting 15 years as a minimum term. Highlight in her age, and again at the fact she'd never been in trouble before, it was also accepted that she hadn't physically carried out the killing herself. But the judge wasn't having any of it. Yeah, Carol hadn't struck the fatal blows, but she'd played a key role in Gary's murder. She helped set it all up, acted as the lookout, and knew exactly what was going to happen. She was far removed from someone sitting on the sidelines. And the fact that both had clean records before this didn't carry much weight, because this was a carefully planned and deliberate act carried out with a clear intent. On Monday, August 12, 2019, both Carol and Scott Dawson were sentenced to life imprisonment. Scott was given a minimum term of 31 years, whereas Carol received a 26-year minimum. And that's where the legal side of this story comes to an end. But when he stepped back and looked at the whole thing, it's hard not to feel a sense of frustration. But it's core, this is a story about a man who was different. A man who had his routines and, yeah, challenges, but ultimately wasn't a danger to anyone. Yet instead of being given the chance to be understood, he became a target to his neighbours, a target of rumours, harassment, and eventually murder. Gary Dean wasn't some dangerous criminal out there intentionally causing chaos. He was a husband, a keen and well-respected runner. Someone who clearly found peace in being out there in nature on those trails just doing his thing. If there's anything to take away from this case, it's how quickly things can escalate when people stop seeing each other as human beings. When frustration turns into blame, and that then turns into something much darker. Once it reaches that point, there's no coming back. Thanks so much for listening to British murders with Stuart Blues, a quick shout out to my newest Patreon member, Astrid Butler. Thanks so much for joining my community. If you want to listen to the show without ads, get episodes a day early and access exclusive content not released on the main feed. You can support the show patreon.com/BritishMurders. Following the podcast really helps British murders continue to grow. I'm genuinely grateful if you've done that already. Written and reviews make a big difference too. Thanks if you've left one or if you've planted. That's it for now. Until next time, Cheerio!