Barry Williams (spree killer)

Barry Kenneth Williams (1944 – 24 December 2014), known since 1994 as Harry Street, was a British spree killer. A foundry worker who lived with his parents, he shot eight people in the English Midlands towns of West Bromwich and Nuneaton in little over an hour on 26 October 1978, killing five. Following a high-speed car chase, he was arrested and in 1979 was convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He was detained in high-security hospitals under mental health legislation.

At Birmingham Crown Court in October 2014, he pleaded guilty to three charges of possessing a prohibited firearm, to putting a neighbour in fear of violence, and to making an improvised explosive device. He was again ordered to be detained indefinitely, this time under sections 37 and 41 of the Mental Health Act 1983, by Mr Justice Blair, who said that "The effect of these orders is that the defendant may never be released". He also likened Williams's more recent behaviour to that leading up to the 1978 incident and said that "a similar tragedy had been narrowly averted". Williams was returned to Ashworth Hospital, where he was already being treated on recall from his previous detention.

He died on 24 December 2014 from a suspected heart attack.

In October 2013, allegations arose that he had waged a campaign of harassment against his next-door neighbour. Williams's home was searched by West Midlands Police as part of their investigation, and he was found to be in possession of an improvised bomb, 50 homemade bullets, a revolver and two pistols. The bomb squad was called in to make the explosive device safe. This was featured in the Channel 5 documentary series The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door.

On release, he changed his name to Harry Street and initially was allowed to live in a bail hostel around 6 miles (9.7 km) from Andrew Road, resulting in complaints from the MP for the latter area, Peter Snape, on behalf of several concerned constituents, to the Home Secretary, Michael Howard. Williams subsequently moved to Wales. He married in 1996 and a child was born later that year. The family moved to Hazelville Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, in 2005.

After being given a conditional release in 1994, he changed his name, moved to Wales, and married. In 2014, following allegations of harassment against his neighbours, he was convicted of further firearms offences. He was again ordered to be detained in a secure hospital, with little likelihood of release, and died in December 2014.

Williams, who had schizophrenia, was released from hospital in 1994 once doctors and a mental health tribunal decided that he was no longer a risk to the public. This was on condition that he could be detained again if his behaviour warranted it. A Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust spokesman said in 2014, "Harry Street was released on a conditional discharge, subject to specific conditions, in 1993 [sic] by a Mental Health Tribunal, an independent judicial body, after careful consideration of the medical evidence presented to them."

In March 1979 at Stafford Crown Court he pleaded not guilty to murder but instead pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The plea was accepted by the prosecution, after psychiatrists gave evidence that he had an active paranoid psychosis. His indefinite detention was ordered by the trial judge, Mr Justice Stephen Brown, and he was held in Broadmoor Hospital and at Ashworth Hospital, both high security units.

On the evening of 26 October 1978, about a week after the extermination threat, George Burkitt and his 20-year-old son Philip were working on Philip's Triumph Spitfire car (bearing the registration WHA 370H) in front of their house. At around 7pm, annoyed by the noise they were making, Williams shot them both with a 9mm Smith & Wesson semi-automatic pistol. George died where he fell and Philip, wounded, ran into the house. Williams followed him, shooting him again and killing him. He then shot and killed George's wife, Iris. The Burkitts' 17-year-old daughter was hit four times in the back and once in the thigh, but survived. Two other neighbours, a married couple who had witnessed the attack on the Burkitts, also survived being shot. The injured were treated at Birmingham General Hospital.

During the mid 1970s, he had been involved in a number of disputes with his neighbours, the Burkitt family, of 16 Andrew Road, alleging that the noise of their television and record player disturbed him and his parents. This became an obsession, and he suffered the delusion that his neighbours were mocking him. On one occasion, during a row about noise, he told Philip Burkitt, "I'm going to exterminate you".