Brothers Scott Knight, Adam Knight and Joshua Knight guilty of murder after performing wrestling moves on Delyth Andrews
00:00, 14 July 2016
updated: 11:42, 22 November 2022
The brothers who killed a woman by performing WWE and Ultimate Fight Championship wrestling moves have been jailed for life after being convicted of her murder.
The Thanet terror trio performed up to seven hours of violent throws including rainbow flips, T-Bones, Cliff-hangers and FUs on their petrified and defenceless victim.
Today, Scott, Adam and Joshua Knight were jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years - but told they may never be released from prison.
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Kindly Delyth Andrews, 54, was turned into a prisoner in her own Ramsgate home after her killers claimed to have smoked legal highs.
The brutal attack left their victim with a broken back, broken ribs and her body covered in bruises.
The jury – which listened to detailed evidence about the humiliation Ms Andrews was subjected to - took three days before finding them all guilty of murder.
Ms Andrews' sister Sian Brown clutched a pair of Delyth's earrings - the only item they were able to salvage from her home - and wept as the verdicts were read out.
Watch: Scott brothers jailed for life for murdering Delyth Andrews
The brothers remained impassive as they were told their fate by Judge Adele Williams.
She told them: "You treated Delyth Andrews with the utmost cruelty and callousness and terrorised her.
"What you did was slow torture over many hours.
"Your mother must bear responsibility in a moral sense, if not a legal one, for her own cruelty, her own dishonesty.
"She also failed to summon help for many hours on that night."
Watch: Killer Scott demonstrates wrestling moves in police interview
The judge also commended police for their "thorough and painstaking" investigation into the killing.
During sentencing, Adam Knight's defence Jonathan Higgs QC, said: "She was abused in her own house and during the preceding months these three invaded her home and abused that trust.
"There was an absence of understanding by the brothers about what they had done."
The 4ft 11ins Ms Andrews – who was bi-polar and weighed less than eight stone - was found injured on her bed which had its wooden slats smashed during her frightening ordeal.
Prosecutor Philip Bennetts QC told how Ms Andrews, described by neighbours as "too trusting", later died from the injuries in December 2015.
Scott, 23, Adam, 20 and Joshua, Knight, 19, all of Lorina Road, Ramsgate, denied murder.
Joshua and Adam had offered guilty pleas to the lesser charge of manslaughter and all three admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent before she died.
The prosecutor told how Ms Andrews had got to know the brothers’ mother Elaine Morley, who was homeless, and she invited her to move into her neat and well-kept semi-detached home.
Within weeks they had stripped it bare of everything they could sell to buy drugs – wrecking the property so much that one observer described it as looking like a drugs den.
“Joshua moved in as well and as time progressed Elaine Morley’s other sons, Scott and Adam, also moved into Ms Andrews’ home.
“Elaine Morley and her sons dominated Delyth Andrews’ home. Joshua Knight took a handbag containing Ms Andrews’ Disability Living Allowance and spent the money," he revealed.
He told how Ms Andrews had for many years spoken by phone to a friend Patricia Hodson each evening.
Mr Bennetts said the calls gradually stopped and Ms Morley began answering the phone saying “Elaine’s residence”.
“An X-ray revealed she had multiple rib fractures, fractures to her sternum and her pelvis” - Philip Bennetts QC
The family were “noisy, anti-social, playing loud music which was going all times of the day and night," he told the jury.
The prosecutor said by the summer of 2015 the brothers had smashed the living room, punching holes in a door and Ms Morley put her foot through a glass panel.
Neighbours described Ms Morley and her sons as “aggressive and intimidating” who had bullied Ms Andrews.
Mr Bennetts told how on one occasion a neighbour saw Ms Andrews standing in her living room as one of the brothers pulled down her trousers saying: “Look at the div now”.
In November 2015, the emergency services were called after Ms Andrews was found lying injured on her back in bed, complaining: “They were jumping all over me”.
Mr Bennetts added: “An X-ray revealed she had multiple rib fractures, fractures to her sternum and her pelvis.”
It was then she claimed she had been controlled by the brothers who had taken her TV and jewellery before performing body slams on her.
Joshua told police he and his brothers had performed World Wrestling Entertainment moves on her.
Scott told officers he had been out selling things to get money to buy "spice" – a legal high.
The prosecutor said: “He told police how Joshua and Adam had begun the assault, jumping on Ms Andrews and rainbow flipping her onto her bed.
“He told officers that this had broken some of the wooden slats and his brothers encouraged him to join in.
“He described the assault continuing for hours, from 8pm or 9pm through to 3am with the brothers following her wherever she went in the house.
“He said the moves he and his brothers performed, saying they jumped onto her from the sofa and did rainbow flips, T-Bones, Cliffhangers and FUs, “ he added.
Scott told police “his mother was out during the assault but observed that she didn’t care as she wasn’t really Ms Andrews’ friend and didn’t even pay rent to stay in the house".
The brothers were initially charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent but Ms Andrews’ condition deteriorated by the end of November 2015 and she died on December 2015.
A pathologist concluded her death was as a result of the effects of the injuries she had received during the assault,” it was claimed.
After the sentencing, a spokesman for WWE said: "WWE offers its heartfelt condolences to Delyth Andrews’ family and friends.
"The verdict has brought these murderers to justice for their heinous crimes.
"We doubt the veracity of their statements that WWE moves were used when in fact there are no moves such as rainbow flips, T-Bones and Cliff-hangers.
"We are appalled that WWE has been senselessly dragged into this heinous crime.”
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