My disabled son was tortured to death by his ‘friend’ then his lifeless body was pushed through the streets in a pram
WHEN the gates of the West Road Cemetery in Newcastle are locked, Bev Irving is forced to climb over the churchyard wall to spend the night by the side of the grave of her son, Lee.
“I can’t bear the thought of him being out in the cold,” 47-year-old Bev says. “I need to be with him, to hold his hand and to make sure he isn’t alone.
“I still leave the hallway light on for him and I still set a place for him at the dinner table. We’ll never get over losing him and I’ll never forget that terrible day.”
The oldest of Bev’s four kids, Lee was a 24-year-old with learning disabilities who was imprisoned, tortured, and beaten to death by someone he thought was his friend.
In 2015, killer James Wheatley pushed Lee’s lifeless body through the streets in a baby’s pram, before dumping him at the side of the road.
When investigators examined Lee’s body, they found he’d been killed in a beating so savage that his nose had detached from his face, his ribs had fractured in 27 places, and he was covered in cuts and bruises.
What made his unimaginable suffering all the more horrendous was the fact that mum Bev had repeatedly pleaded with authorities to let her take care of Lee herself in the months leading up to his murder, but she was ignored.
“I begged the social workers and DWP to let me help my own son, but they wouldn’t,” Bev says.
“I knew James Wheatley, his killer, and his family. I knew they were taking advantage, but I was powerless to stop it.”
Speaking out in a new documentary, The Murder of Lee Irving: Disability Mate Crime, Bev is campaigning to make it an offence to abuse people because they are disabled.
Drugged and enslaved for cash
Bev realised Lee was in danger long before he was murdered – and she tried desperately to keep him safe.
Lee first came across James Wheatley and friends when he shared his Blackberry Messenger BBM pin and started chatting with the group.
They invited Lee to a party and befriended him. He then started spending lots of time at the house and eventually moved in.
“I went to the house where they were keeping him and took food and clean clothes,” Bev says.
“I begged him to come home but he would always go back. They fooled him into thinking they were his friends and that he belonged in that dreadful house.”
Lee was being held captive and exploited by Wheatley, along with the help of his mum Julie Mills, girlfriend Nicole Lawrence and lodger Barry Imray, all of whom were ultimately convicted of the crime in 2016.
The sick group plied Lee with a cocktail of drugs including morphine, anti-psychotics, and a heart medication for dogs to keep him sedated and stop him leaving the house.
Wheatley and Lawrence kept him doped up so they could keep control of his money and make him do their bidding, including committing crimes.
“He wanted to live a normal life, just like everybody else,” Bev says. “I know he would be alive today if I’d have been listened to.
“These evil bullies took advantage of him. They used him as slave labour sending him to strip walls and run errands, do shopping and clean houses; working for nothing and all the time they were beating him up and abusing him.
“His benefits were going into their pockets.
“They forced him to go shoplifting and even tried to take loans out in Lee’s name.
“Lee was not properly equipped to be able to handle his own money. He needed help from his family, the people who loved him and who he could trust.
“But nobody listened to me and now my son is dead.
‘The terrible truth dawned on me’
Lee had lived a happy life before 2014, the year he met the man who murdered him.
Growing up in the West Denton area of Newcastle, Lee had lived with Bev and his three brothers Joe, 23, Owen, 14, and Charlie, 13.
“Lee was a happy go lucky lad,” Bev says. “He always had a smile on his face and he always saw the good in people.
“He loved school and spent many happy times on holidays at Centre Parcs and other outdoor activity centres. He was a real live wire.”
But as he got older, Lee found it increasingly difficult to cope.
Bev would regularly report her son missing to the police and other agencies but she was repeatedly told that because Lee was an adult, he was free to go where he pleased.
But in reality, he wasn’t free at all.
On June 6, 2015, Bev shared a Facebook appeal asking for people to help identify a body that had been found dumped on waste ground.
She had no idea it was for her boy.
“I thought his poor family would be devastated and I just wanted to help,” Bev says.
“It wasn’t until much later that day that the terrible truth dawned on me. It was my Lee.
“Officers came to my door and told me that it was a murder inquiry. I had to identify him.
“There was a long walk down a dark tunnel to the mortuary. I could feel my legs giving way.
“It was like a nightmare. To this day I struggle and have flashbacks when I am in corridors.”
‘Merciless’ violence
A few months later, Wheatley was on trial for Lee’s murder – and the true extent of Lee’s agonising ordeal came to light for the first time.
The jury heard Lee was murdered in a “truly shocking” barrage of “merciless” violence during which he was stopped from seeking urgently medical attention.
Wheatley battered Lee while Mills, Lawrence and Imray looked on.
The sickening catalogue of injuries he suffered would have “caused him the most severe degree of prolonged pain.”
Between May 28 to June 6, 2015, Lee was kept in the house in a critically injured state and on three occasions during that period he was brutally beaten.
Texts from Wheatley to Lawrence read out in court revealed the motive: they were going to use Lee’s card to buy a “watch, beds, tellies, fridges, everything. We will hammer it.”
He was punched and kicked to death, ultimately dying of respiratory failure brought on by his injuries, particularly his rib fractures.
Wheatley was found guilty of murder and was told he must serve at least 23 years behind bars.
Newcastle MP Catherine McKinnell says the law was still failing to protect people with disabilities, years after Lee’s death.
“There are many examples of people with a learning disability who have been abused by people who they thought were friends,” she says.
The only thing we can do is to make sure these evil cowards who prey on vulnerable young people and adults are dealt with properly by the courts
Bev Irving
“This has given rise to the phrase ‘mate crime’, where individuals take advantage of someone’s vulnerabilities, bullying them physically, psychologically, or stealing money and possessions.”
“The phrase does not adequately describe in any way the serious financial, physical and often sexual exploitation faced by far too many disabled people at the hands of those they are led to believe are their friends.”
McKinnell is backing Bev’s campaign to make “mate crime” an offence in and of itself.
Elliot Reed, the executive producer at Zeppelin films who worked on the documentary about Lee’s case, also supports Bev’s quest for justice.
“Fourteen agencies, including social services, were involved with Lee since he was four years old,” Reed says.
“A review concluded there were multiple failings to safeguard Lee. Six years on, those closest to Lee are still struggling to come to terms with his death.”
As for Bev, she hopes telling Lee’s story will prevent vulnerable going through what her son endured.
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“The only thing we can do is to make sure these evil cowards who prey on vulnerable young people and adults are dealt with properly by the courts,” Bev says.
“I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through what we have been through since his death.”
The Murder of Lee Irving: Disability Mate Crime premieres on 18th April at 9pm on Sky Crime and NOW TV.