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28
Jul
Three murders in three years: Harrogate's hotbed of serious crime
If you take a short walk from the centre of Harrogate, you will come across a small area of the town that has seen more fatally violent crime than any other.
Three murders have taken place on Mayfield Grove and Strawberry Dale – all just a stone’s throw from each other – over a three-year period.
24-year-old Daniel Ainsley stabbed Mark Wolsey, 48, to death with a kitchen knife on March 5, 2021, at a Mayfield Grove property dubbed Harrogate’s “House from Hell”.
That same year, on December 20, the body of Gracijus Balciauskas, 41, was found wrapped in a rug at a Mayfield Grove flat after a drunken game of chess turned violent.
Vitalijus Koreiva, 37, and Jaroslaw Rutowicz, 39, were both sentenced for the killing.
Paul Tillett, 56, was found by police bound and gagged on the floor of his home on September 30 last year, having been tortured to death by 35-year-old Philip Watson.
Watson’s co-accused, Jason Johnson, faced trial at Leeds Crown Court last month but was acquitted after two weeks.
But why does such a short stretch seem to attract such brutal crimes?
A shopkeeper on Mayfield Grove, who did not want to be named, told the Stray Ferret police are regularly called to the area.
“I’m not surprised when I see the police because they are here so much”, she said.
The shopkeeper said Gracijus Balciauskas’ killers came into her shop regularly, including on the day of the attack, and were often visibly intoxicated.
The woman said drugs and alcohol are prevalent in the area, and she believes they play a key role in local crime.
She also feels poor housing conditions could be a factor:
The houses are really cheap and not in great condition – not many people would want to live there.
A lot of people come and go, they don’t want to raise their children here, but the people who don’t care about [antisocial behaviour] are the people who stay.
Mayfield Grove and Strawberry Dale are just metres apart.
The woman did not seem alarmed or deeply concerned about the area when speaking to the Stray Ferret.
In fact, she appeared to have become accustomed to criminal activity and a heightened police presence.
It’s quite a cheap area to live, but it is also a real mix of people. I see people sitting on the side of the street drinking and smoking. They’re not doing anything wrong, it’s just not uncommon [to see].
Chaotic lifestyles and homelessness
A late-night assault or reckless drunken behaviour is not uncommon in Harrogate, as the Stray Ferret frequently reports.
But the offences committed in the Mayfield Grove area are of a completely different nature – fatal – and have uncovered the town's seedy underbelly.
Those involved in the cases live undeniably chaotic lives; many struggle with substance abuse and are no strangers to the courts.
But housing – or, sometimes, homelessness – seems to be a recurring theme.
Many of the people involved in Mr Tillett’s case – and the two murders prior – did not have a fixed address, some even living at his flat.
He operated a voluntary open-door policy, meaning people could come-and-go as they pleased. But his killer, Watson, abused this policy and invited himself into the flat to smoke crack-cocaine and drink alcohol.
Housing association Sanctuary, which owns Mr Tillett's flat, advertises its proprerties as a "safe and peaceful environment" - but what happened to Mr Tillett in his home could not have been further from that.
The housing association remained silent when approached by the Stray Ferret about the fatal attack.
North Yorkshire Police received 255 complaints over 13 years in relation to 38 Mayfield Grove, where Mark Wolsey was murdered, and the property was made subject to a three-month closure order in 2005.
His killer's defence rested heavily on the fact that he had a personality disorder and a history of homelessness.
The property, owned by John Willis Properties Ltd, was divided into six privately let bedsits. Many of the tenants struggled with drug and alcohol addictions, mental health problems, and backgrounds of homelessness and crime.
Following Mr Wolsey’s murder, Mayfield Grove residents told the Stray Ferret it’s difficult to think of a more dangerous scenario than housing people with multiple needs together in a terraced home on a busy street, and this problem should have been identified and tackled.
The Stray Ferret asked Richard Cooper, chief executive at Harrogate Homeless Project, what more could be done to tackle these deep-rooted issues at the centre of such horrific crimes.
He told us:
Taking someone from a point in their life where they are at their most chaotic with entrenched behaviours to a situation where they are living independently, in work and managing their own health is a complex, lengthy and expensive process. But if the issues of poor mental and physical health, addiction and relationship breakdowns are unrecognised, underfunded and unaddressed then no one and nowhere is immune to the social problems that can follow.
Police at the scene of Mark Wolsey's murder on Mayfield Grove.
A freedom of information request revealed North Yorkshire Police officers have been called to Mayfield Grove six times over the last ten months.
They were called to one incident on nearby Strawberry Dale, one on Nydd Vale Terrace and three on Franklin Road.
But the number of crimes committed in the area is totally overshadowed by their fatal nature.
When crimes as serious murder are still happening, questions remain for those who play a part in preventing them.
The Stray Ferret has put questions to North Yorkshire Police, housing agencies, private landlords and councils about these complex problems over the years, and we will continue to do so.
You can read our investigation into Harrogate’s House of Hell here, as well as our coverage of the recent murder trial.
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